What Makes You Beautiful
by Anima Terrum
Summary: Alexandria Tristan Chasity Quincy is not your average student, well, actually, she is. However, she's caught the eyes of a certain laser shooting mutant.
1. What Makes You Beautiful

Scott had to wonder when his thoughts for a certain red head began to fade. He catches sight of the brunette who had been haunting his thoughts for the past few weeks. "Scott, are you even listening to me?" Kurt asks, waving a hand in front of the older boy's face. "Hello, is anyone home in there?" He stares over in Scott's line of vision. "Hey isn't that the new girl?"

Scott didn't have a chance to reply before Kitty skips up to them, dragging the said new girl behind her. "Hey you two, Scott, Kurt meet Alexandria T.C. Quincy."

"Hey, nice to meet you, Alexandria," Kurt greets while Scott merely waves due to the fact that if he were to talk, he'd trip all over his words. "What does 'T.C.' stand for?" Kurt asks, the four of them walking towards their classrooms.

"Tristan Chastity," she replies, "And just call me Alex, everyone does." She glances down at the schedule the attendance lady had printed out for her in the morning. "I suppose this is my new class then?"

Kitty nods continuing to her own class. "You better take care of her, Scott. Alex, I'll pick up you after class, wait for me, ok?"

_You're insecure  
>Don't know what for<br>You're turning heads when you walk through the door  
>Don't need make up<br>To cover up  
>Being the way that you are is enough<br>_

"You must be Alexandria Quincy, right?" the old teacher asks looking at his attendance sheet. "It's not very often students transfer into my class, usually they can't transfer out fast enough." The small joke receives quite a bit of laughter from the students. "Here, let me go get you a book and a desk. Please introduce yourself to your classmates."

The classroom had donated its extra desks and chairs to more popular and overcrowded classes like Creative Literature and Writing. "Um, hi, my name is Alexandria Tristan Chastity Quincy; you can just call me Alex."

For some reason, all of the smart jocks stopped whispering about sports long enough to catch her name. "Why did your parents name you Alexandria and why do you have two middle names?" one of them asks.

"My parents met while they were working at the Library of Alexandria, Tristan was the name of one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, and Chastity was meant to represent my parent's ancestral past." Alex says as if she had repeated the same statement many times before.

Some of the girls in the front row usher her to come over to their desks. "Hey what kind of products do you use?"

"I don't use any." Alex replies squatting to be level with the height of the desk. "I'm on the swim team; it'll just wash off, so why bother right?"

_Everyone else in the room can see it  
>Everyone else but you<br>_

"So, do you live with Kitty at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children?" Alex asks watching the students walk through the halls during the passing period after class. Some of the other students had offered to take her to her next class, but luckily for Scott, she already had Kitty.

"Yeah," Scott replies hoping that his voice would sound normal and not that of a middle school boy talking to his crush. "Kurt lives there too, Jean, and some others you haven't met yet." Scott notices quite a few people turning their glances towards Alex when they walked past them.

Alex waves at Kitty, catching sight of the bubbly girl in the crowd of students. "Maybe I could come over and hang out then? As you probably already know, I don't have that many friends. I guess people just don't really like me."

"I highly doubt that." Scott says turning to face the slightly shorter girl for the first time. Up close he could tell that she had the athletic build of a swimmer but wasn't overly muscular like some swimmers. Her brown eyes actually seemed to have flecks of green and gold in them. "They just don't know you."

Alex smiles, a small pearly pink blush covering her tanned skin. "Thanks."

At that moment, Kitty runs up to them, one minute before the passing period ends. "Sorry, I got caught up with something." She grabs Alex's hand and they run off towards the other end of the school building.

_Baby you light up my world like nobody else  
>The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed<br>But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell  
>You don't know<br>Oh Oh  
>You don't know you're beautiful<br>_

"Kitty!" Alex runs up to the group, a gym back slung over her shoulder and a custom swim team jacket on. "You made it!" She pulls Kitty into a hug.

"Well, Scott got lost driving here, almost ended up in the middle of a corn field." Kitty laughs, "I'll introduce you to everyone else. This is Ororo and Professor Xavier, our main guardians."

"Nice to meet you two." Alex says reaching out to shake hands with the two adults. "I love your hair color, is it natural?" She points to Rogue's red hair, "I've always wanted that color hair."

"Alex, we have to go." One of the male managers of the swim team calls from the pool door. "Meet's going to start soon."

"I'll be right there." She gives Kitty one last squeeze before heading towards the girl's changing room. "Meet up later?"  
>Kitty nods, "Good luck."<p>

But, as it turned out, luck was something Alex didn't need at all. Even the parents in the crowd who knew almost nothing about swimming could tell there was something different about the way she did the butterfly stroke. Everything about the way she performed this swimming style speaks of monstrosity. The way Alex erupts from the water, arms coming about like she's trying to envelope her prey, and then diving back into the water, disappearing from view only to come up seconds later.

Her teammates crowd around her lane, offering hands to pull her out. The swimmers go to their respected sides, all of them wrapped in dry towels. Alex glances over at the onlookers, waving when she catches sight of Kitty.

"Hey Kitty do you and your friends want to join us for an after meet party?" Alex asks pulling away from the rest of the swim team members. She brushes her wet hair over her shoulder, sending water droplets behind her. "It's at this guy Duncan's house, he's a football player and a friend of our manager, here's his address." She hands Kitty a scrap of paper torn out of a memo pad.

Kitty looks over at the rest of the group, they shrug and the professor nods. "Sure, that sounds like fun, do you need a ride? I'm sure we could fit one more person in Scott's car."

Alex looks back at the rest of the team, being on the varsity team meant that she'd be working with a lot of the older girls. "Its fine, some of the girls are carpooling together, I'll meet you there." She slowly wanders back to the rest of the swimmers, the older girls gushing and cooing over her smaller frame.

"She's almost like their pet." Rogue says scoffing at the swim team's attitude towards Alex. "So are we going to go or are we just going to stand here all day gawking at them." Luckily for them, Jean just so happened to be dating the party thrower, she was the only one who got in without a hassle.

"Whoa, who brought the outsiders here?" Duncan asks pretending to be a good host and greeting party-goers at his door. He forcibly pushes Scott off the steps to his house. "Last I recall this was a swim party?"

"And last I recall you were a football player." Scott shoots back, obviously not the right thing to say at the moment. Some of Duncan's football posse friends happened to hear the retort and their squared shoulders block the door. "Come on guys, maybe we can just talk things through?"

"Kitty!" Alex practically flings herself into the arms of her friend. "I'm so glad you made it." She takes in the scene, cocking her head to the side. "Is there something wrong?"

By then the other girls Alex had arrived with got to the door. "What's the hold up here?" One of the buffer swimmers ask, Scott could see the muscles in her shoulders pressing up against her varsity jacket. "Are you seriously going to let a little girl like Alex freeze out here? Where is your humanity, man?"

Duncan throws his arms up in frustration, stepping aside to let everyone in. "Drinks are in the cooler, pizza in the kitchen, and bathrooms are down the hall to the left and right up the stairs."

Alex stares at her feet, mumbling a small thanks to Duncan before stepping into his house. "You better dry your hair," one of the younger football players says reaching out to touch her hair. "You're hair is frozen." And sure enough a small bit of ice breaks from her hair upon his touch.

_If only you saw what I can see  
>You'll understand why I want you so desperately<br>Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe  
>You don't know<br>Oh oh  
>You don't know you're beautiful<br>Oh oh  
>That what makes you beautiful<br>_

Sometime around ten, someone put clubbing dance music on the stereo and put up different colored lights for a makeshift dance floor. "Come on, Alex, dance with me." Kitty says trying to drag the poor girl into the mosh pit of other dancers. "It's ok if you can't dance, I'll teach you."

Alex shakes her head. "You go ahead; I'll just hang out here." She sits back in her chair by the island table in the kitchen. She does a shooing motion at Kitty and Kurt as they head out to join in the dancing. "Why aren't you dancing, Rogue?"

"Don't feel like it," the antisocial girl replies taking another swig of her soda. "Besides, dancing is not my thing."

"Oh no you don't," A British girl with purple hair and piercing comes out of nowhere, linking arms with Rogue. "Come on, let's party!" And off Rogue goes, purple hair dragging her off into the crowd.

Alex swivels around in her chair to the only other person sitting near her. "So, Scott, any reason why you don't dance?"

Scott shrug, leaning against the table. "I'm not much a dancer in the first place." He yells over the music, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Jean and Duncan doing some interesting moves at the edge of the dance floor.

"Is it because Jean's out there grinding Duncan instead of you?" Alex asks, her voice easily carrying over the music. Scott just glances at her; it was too dark to actually make out any facial clues as to what she was really thinking. "Am I wrong?"

Scott chuckles, "We're just really good friends."

Alex nods letting what he had just said run through her head. "Why don't you ever take off your sunglasses? Even when you sleep in math you never take your glasses off."

"I, ah, have this eye condition." Scott says, the look on Alex's face says that she clearly doesn't believe him. "And you're not buying it, are you?"

Alex shakes her head. "I know when people are lying to me. If you don't want to tell me its fine, I'll just keep pestering me until you do."

"You really want to know?"

Alex shrugs, "I didn't have many friends at my old school because everyone said I was too nosy."

"You shouldn't always listen to what other people say about you." Scott says watching the different colored lights flash around the room. "If it means anything, I don't think you're nosy, just curious."

It could've been the right lights and the flashing disco ball, but he could have sworn that he saw a bright red blush streak across Alex's face at the moment.

_So c-come on  
>You got it wrong<br>To prove I'm right I put it in a song  
>I don't know why<br>You're being shy  
>And turn away when I look into your eyes<br>_

"Here, I want to show you something." Scott says finally gathering up his courage to do something. He offers a hand, "don't worry, I won't do anything to you."

Alex hesitantly takes his hand and hops off her chair. "Where are we going?" He leads her towards the back door. "Should we tell someone?"

"Don't about anything." Scott reassures her leading her outside. It was a slightly chilly night. "I just want to show you something." Duncan's house was located on the top of a small hill, the backyard led to a small forest. "You wanted to know about why I keep my sunglasses on all the time."

"And why do we have to come to a forest?" Alex asks shivering, all traces of worry lost. Scott had forgotten that they had left their jackets back at the house. "It's freezing out here." She rubs her arms to ease the goose bumps that were appearing on her uncovered arms.

Scott checks the distances from their current position and Duncan's house. "Just promise me that you won't scream and run away." Alex nods slowly, confusion written all over her face. Scott takes a deep breath, mentally squaring his shoulders. He slowly takes his sunglasses off, letting the red laser shoot towards the sky above them.

Alex gasps, "It's so pretty," she quickly covers her mouth with her hands. Scott puts on his glasses again. They stare at each other in an awkward silence. "So you can shoot lasers out of your eyes?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Scott says, his words creating white puffs of air. "Maybe we should head back, you're looking a bit blue and purple." He holds her frozen hand as they hike back up the hill into the warm sanctuary of the house. "So, should I be worried about you telling anyone about my secret?" He picks up two sodas from the cooler which was flooding with melted ice water.

Alex shakes her head. "I highly doubt anyone would believe in the first place." She accepted the soda from Scott. "You think I could see it again, sometime?"

Scott raises an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I think it's beautiful." Alex says avoiding eye contact with the sunglass wearing man next to her. Suddenly finding a great deal of interest in her soda can. "Can I see them again?"

"Sure, why not?" Scott says he could easily see the rest of his friends still dancing around the room. Apparently, no one noticed their disappearance. "But I'm sure you're more beautiful than my eyes."

Scott makes sure his face stays straight ahead, but glances at her out of the corner of his eye, which wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Her usually tanned cheeks were a perfect rosy hue. Her eyes still glued to her soda can. "Thanks."


	2. One Thing

_I've tried playing it cool  
>But when I'm looking at you<br>I can't ever be brave  
>'Cause you make my heart race<br>_

The third table from the end of the hall on the left was the table Alexandria always occupied when she was in the library. Scott ducks behind his text book when she quickly glances towards his direction.

Scott waited until the pounding in his chest began to stop. It was occurring quite often, whenever he thought of her, his heart would beat a little fast and his face would feel a little warmer.

"Wow Scott you're really cool." Scott practically jumps out of the chair. He had been so immersed in his own thoughts that he hadn't heard the soft taps of Alexandria's shoes on the wooden library floors. "I didn't know you could read books upside down."

"Yeah, neither did I," Scott quickly reverses the direction of the book, hoping that his face wasn't burning red like his ego was.

Alexandria just laughs at him quietly. "I guess I'll see you in class then." He hadn't noticed that she had gathered up of her reading and school material nor did he really notice the small flush that exploded on Alexandria's cheeks after she had walked away from his table.

_Shot me out of the sky  
>You're my kryptonite<br>You keep making me weak  
>Yeah, frozen and can't breathe<br>_

Since the two of them had met they were practically connected at the hip, and by two, Scott meant Kitty and Alexandria. They had started to do everything together, homework, after school ice cream, and lunches. Yes, Alexandria was immediately welcomed into their little lunch table.

Now Scott is a very lucky person, especially when it comes to food and lunch. "Scott, I can't believe you got the very last piece of cobbler." Kurt complains loudly, trying to guilt the x-man leader into possibly sharing the limited blueberry cobbler. Their school lunch ladies did a very strange thing once a month where they made two or three desserts which were first come, first serve.

"You are very lucky," Alexandria agrees working her way through her lunch. "You always get the desserts."

Scott shrugs swatting Kurt's sneaky hand away from his cobbler. He pushes the plate away from the underclassmen as they watch him for a sign of weakness for their chance at snatching a bite of the dessert. "Come on, Scott, can't you share." Kitty says obviously eyeing the blueberry flavored deliciousness.

"No way, blueberry cobbler is my favorite." Scott says guarding the cobbler as if his life depended on it. He refocuses on his meal, ignoring the attempted plots against him and his precious.

"Hey Scott." Once again, Alexandria manages to startle him. Somehow, she had ended up sitting next to him and Kurt was sitting in Alexandria's usual seat next to Kitty. And for some reason both Kitty and Kurt was acting as if nothing suspicious had happened, and that makes everything suspicious. "How's your lunch today?"

Scott glances at the two usual tricksters for any signs of the pranks, no reaction. "As good as lunch food can get I suppose." Scott makes sure to keep an eye on Kitty and Kurt not only do they always try to steal his dessert but also he knew that if he were to look at the girl sitting next to him, he would choke up and then Kitty and Kurt would have a field day. "And how is yours?"

"Pretty good," She replies. "I can see why you like blueberry cobbler so much."

Scott glances at the spot he had left his cobbler, the plate and its contents were missing and were in the delicate fingers of Alexandria. She smiles sweetly at him and he almost thought his heart stopped. "Here, I'll let you have a bite." She holds out the small piece in such a fashion that Scott almost thought he was going to seriously loose it.

"Do you have to feed me?" Scott asks lamely, his skin was starting to feel very prickly as if the entire lunch area was staring at him intently. But of course, that was all in his mind, in reality, only Kitty and Kurt were staring at him intently.

She simply smiles again and holds up the piece of cobbler. "You do want it, right?"

Scott sighs, leaning forward to accept the piece of cobbler. The act is met with complete silence on Kitty and Kurt's side of the table which would mean that he would be mercilessly teased on the car ride back to the mansion. And it would take all of his self-restraint to keep himself from purposely running his car off the side of the road and into some sort of ditch.

_Something's gotta get now  
>'Cause I'm dying just to make you see<br>That I need you here with me now  
>'Cause you've got that one thing<em>

It's the dreaded Halloween Masquerade Ball. Scott just stares at the advertising poster taped onto his locker. The previous years he mocked and laughed at the silly people who actually went to an event like this, but this year things were different. This year he was going to find the guts and ask someone. And that someone was a particular someone who's entire full name was over twice as long as his own, yes, he was going to try and ask Alexandria Tristan Chastity Quincy.

"Hey Scott, whatcha looking at?" Scott immediately swings the door to his locker open, effectively hiding the poster from the speaker's view.

"Nothing," he replies gathering his books for his next class. "So, what do you want, Kurt?"

There are very few reasons for the younger x-man to seek Scott out during school, one would be for food (which is out because they recently just came from lunch), and the second would be to ask him for a huge favor that would consequently be regretted in the future.

"Kitty and I were thinking that we could have a party at the mansion." Kurt explains following Scott down the hall. "It'll be a Halloween party, but we need the Professor's permission."

And that's where Scott would come in. "Sorry, but I'm thinking about doing something on Halloween, so you better find yourself another person to mooch off of." And if she were to say no, then he could just sulk at the local park before joining the festivities elsewhere. "You guys could always go to the dance you know."

"Ah, so you're planning on going to the dance?" Kurt asks suddenly finding Scott's personal life very interesting. "Are you going to ask Alexandria to the dance? You better hurry; I heard a lot of people want to ask her."

Scott didn't find it surprising that there would be a line of people waiting to ask Alexandria to the dance. She had something that other girls could only dream about having and what all guys wanted to keep all to themselves.

_So get out, get out, get out of my head  
>And fall into my arms instead<br>I don't, I don't, don't know what it is  
>But I need that one thing<br>And you've got that one thing_

"Have you asked her yet?" it seemed like everyone knew that he was planning on asking Alexandria to the dance, everyone but the girl herself who was still absolutely oblivious. Scott didn't like his chances at the moment. As far as he knew, Alexandria had rejected every offer made at her, even the ones from the more popular end of the social spectrum.

Scott shakes his head, "no, there never seems to be a good time to ask her, she's always with Kitty or one of her other friends." Scott lets his head hit the wooden desk in front of him.

"If that's the only problem, then we, like, can totally help you with that." Kitty says, nudging Kurt in the side. "And you better ask her." Whatever she was planning, Scott was hoping that it wouldn't come off as too suspicious or too attention drawing.

Scott was on edge for most of the morning waiting for Kitty and Kurt's plan to just explode in his face, however, when nothing happened by lunch time he was starting to let his guard down. However, when he saw that their usual lunch table was lacking in their presence he should have known better, but of course, he didn't, at the time.

"Where's Kitty and Kurt, shouldn't they be here by now?" Scott glances around looking for the two troublemakers. He sets his lunch down across the table from Alexandria who just happened to be the only one there.

She just shrugs. "They said you had something to tell me and then ran off somewhere. So, what did you want to tell me?" She just stares at him with her curious brown eyes.

"Well, I was just wondering if you were doing anything on Halloween night." Scott says already kicking himself, the conversation not going how he had planned it to go.

"I'm not doing anything." Alexandria says, tilting her head to the side. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just thinking that maybe we could do something together." Scott explains quickly, mixing his mashed potatoes around to avoid looking at her. "But that's only if you really want to, I mean, I know Kitty's trying to organize a party at the mansion."

Which probably meant that Alexandria would be wherever Kitty was, but Scott could handle that, sort of. "Sure, why not." Alexandria says smiling widely. "We could go to the school Halloween dance, I heard it's supposed to be really fun."

"Oh yeah, the dance." Scott agrees glad that he didn't have to bring the topic up himself. __

_Now I'm climbing the walls  
>But you don't notice at all<br>That I'm going out of my mind  
>All day and all night<br>_

Since they were officially going to the dance together, Scott milked the excuse to spend as much time with Alexandria as possible. Which also meant that he had to spend buckets of time with Kitty, who would end up dragging Kurt and a few other x-men into the situation, so, in the end, he didn't really spend that much 'alone' time with her.

"You can't see the ball dress before the ball, it's like, bad luck, you know." Kitty says pushing Scott out of the Halloween store. "Just wait out here, come on, Alex, we have to find something for you to wear."

And before Alexandria could say any word to disagree, Kitty drags her by the arm back into the store. They were in there so long that it got the point where Scott couldn't go five minutes without actually checking the clock to see how long the two of them had been in there.

"I thought I was going to die waiting." Scott says dramatically when two familiar faces finally emerge from the costume shop with large bags around both of their wrists. "Any chance of finding out your costume so I can prepare myself?"

"No way," Kitty replies, pushing Alexandria behind her. "All you need to wear is a nice suit and find something red to go along with it. You know, I could, like, totally find something for you to wear."

Scott shrugs, shopping wasn't really his thing. To be exact, he was pretty sure shopping wasn't even a guy thing, not that he would ever say that out loud. "Why not, at least it saves me from looking like a complete weirdo. Just, don't overdo it."

Kitty claps, things obviously going according to her private plan. "Good, we just need to stop by one other store so I can get things ready." Scott and Alexandria trail slightly behind the overexcited girl. "Hurry up you two, I want to get it before the mall closes."

"What do you think she's planning?" Alexandria asks twirling the handle of her bag around her finger. They were currently sitting next to each other on a bench just a little ways down from the store Kitty had disappeared into.

"Who really knows?" Scott sighs rubbing his face with his hands. "I just hope I don't look stupid in it."

They had a comfortable silence between them; the shoppers passing them filled the air with nonsense conversation. "I think you would look good in anything." Alexandria says quietly, so quietly, that Scott thought it was just his imagination.

But before Scott could reply or ask any questions, Kitty runs out of the store. "There, everything's all taken care of." And with that simple statement, they decided to head to the respected homes. __

_So get out, get out, get out of my mind  
>And come on, come into my life<br>I don't, I don't, don't know what it is  
>But I need that one thing<br>And you've got that one thing_

Stunning, beautiful, heartstopping, those words didn't seem to come close to describing Alexandria and her wine red dress. "You don't think it's too much, right?" Alexandria says nervously smoothing the creaseless folds of the dress. "Kitty said that it would be good, but I don't know."

"It's perfect." Scott says. It is a medieval style dress with a long full skirt and puffed up sleeves that billowed past her finger tips. The costume had wonderfully placed accents of gold and black to enhance the over all image. In comparison, Scott's butler-like suit seemed out of place. "I wish Kitty did a better job with my costume."

Alexandria laughs, "I think you look perfectly charming." She puts on the matching red wine and black mask. "I do believe we have a ball to be attending." Scott nods, leading by the hand to his parked car. __

_You've got that one thing_

Scott felt like he was Cinderella dancing at the ball with her prince charming, or rather, this was what he imagined Cinderella was feeling. Although the DJ put on very loud clubbing music, there were some nice slow songs to dance to. "I didn't think you would know how to waltz." Alexandria says after they had managed to escape the crowd of dancers.

"I only know a few moves." Secretly glad that he had taken the dancing lessons from Storm. "You're a pretty good dancer yourself."

"Thanks." Alexandria replies sipping the bubbling punch. "I was expecting you to be here with Jean, since you like her and everything."

It's true that Scott and Jean were close, but they had grown apart recently as Scott had stopped scowling over everything the red head did with her jock boyfriend. "She came with her boyfriend. They're doing this vampire thing."

"I'm sure she looks wonderful." Alexandria sighs. "She's so pretty, you know."

"You're pretty too."

"Thanks, Scott."__

_Get out, get out, get out of my head  
>And fall into my arms instead<br>_

"So, thanks for walking me up to my house." Alexandria says awkwardly. The awkward tension is increased due to the fact that her parents were probably watching her from the window. "I guess I'll see you in school on Monday?"

Before Alexandria could shut the door behind her something inside of Scott made him speak out. "Wait a minute."

She turns around to face him. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah, I forgot to do something." And in one swift movement he skipped up the steps to the door and pressed his lips against hers. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Scott quickly pulled away. "I'll see you on Monday then."

_So get out, get out, get out of my head  
>And fall into my arms instead<br>I don't, I don't, don't know what it is  
>But I need that one thing<br>_

Scott almost thought the kiss that night was a dream until Monday during third period study hall; Alexandria sat her books down across the table from Scott. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Go ahead." After that kiss, it felt as if a weight had been lifted from his chest and it became easier to talk to her without falling all over his words. "I hope I didn't offend you on Saturday." He tried to focus on the words of his worksheet, but he was honestly more interested in the girl sitting across from him.

Alexandria seemed to find a great deal of interest in the essay she was researching for. "You didn't. Though, my dad was a little taken aback, but he'll get over it."

"For my own safety, I hope he does." Scott adds, his little remark is met with a small chuckle from Alexandria which cleared up all possibilities of bad feelings between the two of them.

_So get out, get out, get out of my mind  
>And come on, come into my life<br>I don't, I don't, don't know what it is  
>But I need that one thing<br>Yeah, you've got that one thing _

Every month or so they rotated seats in math, this month, Alexandria would be sitting right behind Scott. And as usual the teacher just went on and on about the same boring topic that Scott no longer paid very much attention to. Scott stares at his notebook which was becoming more and more covered in doodles of random squares and triangles.

He was almost not awake enough to feel the soft tap of something hitting his back. Scott glances around him, noticing a folded white piece of memo paper on the floor. _Bored?_

Was written on the paper in Alexandria's pretty handwriting.

_Out of my mind, what's up?_

_Nothing much._

_So I was wondering…_

_? _

Scott chuckles at the question marks she made, it seemed so like her. _Do you want to do something with me this weekend?_

_Sure, there's this movie I've wanted to see._

Not the classiest way to get a date, but he got a date nonetheless.


	3. First Date

"Honestly, Scott, don't worry about it." Alex laughs standing on her front porch. It's already evening time, way past the time Scott had promised to get her home by, and in other words, he was so dead. "My parents are really cool about this stuff, and they like you."

**4 Hours Earlier**

Scott had arrived at Alex's house a good five or ten minutes before the planned meeting time, yes, he was that nervous. He runs a hand through his hair after pushing the door bell, contemplating his choices for the date. Since the two of them decided to see a movie, he chose a plain navy blue sweater and a pair of nice khakis. Perhaps he should have chosen something dresser? It's too bad he doesn't get a chance to run away as the turquoise door swings open.

"Hi, you must be Scott," It's a woman who can only be described as looking like Alex's older sister. "I'm Molly, Alexandria's mom. She's told us so much about you and the other kids at the Xavier Institute." She steps to the side to reveal a tidy hall way leading to a sunny yellow walled kitchen. "Come in, come in, we're actually in the middle of a late brunch. Alexandria, your friend is here."

"Sorry for disturbing you." Scott says already starting to regret his life's choices.

Mrs. Quincy banishes the comment with a wave of her hand. "Nonsense, dear. My husband and I were just conversing about our next research expedition. I want to spend some time in Greece, and he wants to do something in South America."

Alex practically floats down the hall from the kitchen. Even in painted splatter jeans and T-shirts, Scott still thought she looked good. "Sorry, we spent the morning painting the living room." She glances at the item in his hands, her eyes lighting up in recognition. "Are those for me?"

"Who else?" Scott hands the blue tinted carnations to the younger girl. Alex buries her face into the flowers; she glances back at him to say something before a loud manly voice booms before the kitchen.

"Alexandria, is this the boy who wants to take you out?" Scott wouldn't really call him burly, but Alex's father is obviously very athletic, the muscles still very profound under his shirt. He practically looms over his wife and daughter who were both petite in body type. "My name is Conrad Lucas Quincy." He sticks out a large hand for a shake.

Scott's own hand is practically engulfed by Mr. Quincy's. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm going to get ready." She starts to head upstairs with her flowers. "Mom, can you get me a vase for these?"

Mr. Quincy swings an arm around Scott's shoulders and steers him towards the kitchen where plates of breakfast sandwiches, fruits, and crepes litter their dining table. "Let us men talk in here while Alexandria gets ready." Mr. Quincy says ushering him to sit in a chair across from him. "Now, what were you planning to do with my daughter today?"

"Um, to see a movie?" Scott can practically feel the holes Mr. Quincy was trying to bore into his skull. Scott couldn't really see the other man doing any type of research; he seemed fit for the army. "And then maybe we could go get some ice cream."

Mr. Quincy nods slightly. "You see, I did my research on ancient civilizations and their cultures. If you just so happen to disrespect my daughter I will painfully end you." And Scott didn't doubt him for a second.

"Dad, stop threatening people." Alex says entering the kitchen. She had changed out of the old jeans and T-shirt she wore to paint, now opting for a clean pair of jeans and a flowy long sleeved evergreen T-shirt with the words 'Fabulously Me' written out in sparkling silver letters. "You ready to go?"

Scott nods and they were out the door and in his car before Mr. Quincy could voice another one of his many threats. "You're father's really intense." Scott says as he slows to a red light.

"He's actually just a big softie, can't do anything against my mother. They just like to argue for the sake of arguing." Alex explains, sweeping her long dark hair over her shoulder. "Any thoughts on the movie we should see?"

He never had too much time to find out the latest movies, he is the leader of a group of mutant teenagers who trained to save the world after all. "There's a really popular one that recently came out, a lot of people in class were talking about it."

"Just as long as we don't run into them," She obviously knew who he was talking about. They had been almost stalking her ever since Duncan's party. Most of them probably just wanted a pretty girlfriend to show off. "They won't stop following me. I almost wanted to ask my dad to deal with them."

And it would be exactly what they deserved. "Well, here's the moment of truth." Scott turns into the parking lot of the ever so popular movie theater. And as usual, it's almost completely filled, mostly with teenagers hanging out around the area. "What are the chances that they aren't actually here?"

Alex rolls her eyes. "I would be surprised to hear that." Scott notices that she walks a little bit closer to him than she would usually walk. But he doesn't have time to delve into the hidden meaning of her walking when sees an all too familiar car in the parking lot.

"Hey there Alex," and it's too late. Scott is practically pushed to the side as their classmates and other jocks suddenly rush towards them. They were all chatting away at Alex. "You want to see a movie with us?"

Scott catches her eye over their heads. He tries to make arm motions to just run for it. "I actually really want to see that movie." She points to a random movie on the wall, opting to play to the boys' fantasies. "Could one of you, buy me a ticket?"

They are practically falling over one another to buy her a ticket. "Come on, I know another place we could go." Scott says grabbing her hand a making a mad dash across the street. He leads her through the maze of city streets and lots of pedestrians before slowing down into a calm walk. "You alright?"

Alex nods clearly out of breath. "So, ice cream?" They were outside his favorite ice cream place after all. Scott lets her pull him into the ice cream parlor. Their hand still intertwined with one another. His hand felt a bit empty when he let go of her hand to order their ice cream. "What if they find us again?"

"I could distract them with my ice cream and we can hide out behind a tree." They had run quite the distance, now in the Bayville Park deep in the heart of the suburbs. "Next time, I'll make sure not to go wherever they're going."

Alex nods licking her mint flavored ice cream cone. "We should come here again, I like it here." She silently slips her fingers in between his and they walked down a small park trail like that. Everything really is peaceful with Alex around, everything but his racing heart. And secretly hoped that his hand didn't start sweating.

"Hey Scott, Alex!" People were just not leaving them alone today. Any other day, Scott would just walk over to Jean with his usual smile on and have a nice chat with her about some random topic. But today, he just wanted to have a nice date with Alex. "What are you two doing here?"

Alex quickly lets go of Scott's hand before Jean could see it. "Out for a walk, you and Duncan seem to be having a nice time together." The couple had set up a small picnic not too far from the path. "I hope we're not disturbing you."

Jean shakes her head. "We're actually getting ready to go."

"What are you doing here, Summers?" That snobby attitude filled voice could only belong to one person, Duncan. He had gotten ice cream bars from a nearby vendor when Jean called out to them.

"I'm clearly on a peaceful walk with Alex." Scott replies. Something about the other male made Scott want to fight. It's like talking to an angry child, sooner or later, you'll get angry too. "Something that wasn't obvious to you." He munches on the waffle cone of his ice cream.

Duncan is so easily angered, and Scott is the one who usually does the angering. This time, the results turn out to be much sweeter as Duncan grabs at the front of Scott's sweater, only for Scott to drop the remains of his ice cream cone on Duncan's pants and shoes. "I think we better get going then." Alex suggests, her turn to grab his hand a run towards the forest on one side of the park.

Scott ducks behind a tree, pulling the shorter girl to his chest, making sure that Duncan didn't find them. In the spur of the moment, Scott had let his arms wrap themselves around Alex's petite waist. If this were to happen in another type of situation, he would have jumped backwards and stuttered like crazy. Too bad the tree against his back wouldn't let him do that. "Sorry about all of this." He reluctantly lets go of Alex.

"It's ok," She didn't seem to be as flustered as he felt. "But thanks for helping me hide from the angry boyfriend of your friend." She has to stand on her tip toes in order to be relatively level with his height. And she brushes her soft lips against his cheek. "Perhaps we should head back to your car now?"

Scott hesitantly follows her out of the forest, noting the blush on her cheeks and returning to their former hand position. By the time they make it back to his car, the sun is already dipping below the skyline. "I have one last thing to show you, if you're up for it."

Alex flashes him a brilliant smile. "Of course!" They were driving through the border of the downtown area when the city lights turn on. Alex stares out the window, letting her hair whip back and forth in the wind.

"And this isn't even the best part." Scott yells above the wind as he drives up the familiar road to the little overlook that all of the other x-men knew about. At first, it was his place, then he showed it to Jean, and then everyone else found out about it. "Not the most romantic place in the world, but it works."

"Are you kidding, this is absolutely amazing." Alex exclaims, sitting on the hood of Scott's car. Another aspect of Alex that Scott could add to his list of reasons why he liked her, she is easily pleased by the little things in life. "Who knew Bayville could actually be this exciting?"

"Bayville's actually not that exciting." Scott admits, leaning against his car. He sometimes imagined that the scene before him would be the same as New York City or Chicago. Not that he'd actually know.

Alex hops off the hood and moves to stand in front of him. "Well, I had fun today; maybe we could do this again sometime? Or you can come over to my house and have dinner with me."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" He raises an eyebrow feeling as if their roles had been reversed.

Alex shrugs, "only if you say yes."

"I'm free on Friday night."

Alex beams "That's great; I'll make sure my dad's on his best behavior and doesn't threaten you again." It's only when she starts to shiver that Scott starts to realize his mistake.

Scott hadn't noticed how late it was getting. By then, traffic through the streets was relatively easy. Alex reassuring him that Scott was not going to get killed by her father. "Honestly, Scott, don't worry about it." Alex laughs standing on her front porch. It's already evening time, way past the time Scott had promised to get her home by, and in other words, he was so dead. "My parents are really cool about this stuff, and they like you."

"You won't tell them about the, you know." He points to his sunglasses. Probably another thing that will make Mr. Quincy not let Scott date Alex. "I can't imagine that they'll take it too well."

Alex laughs, leaning against her door. "Don't worry, I'll get tell them that the light bothers you sometimes. They probably won't even care. You can tell them the truth when you're ready."

"I just have one more question for you." Scott says as Alex starts to open her door. She turns back to him. "Um, are we officially dating now?" Really? Could he get any stupider?

Alex stares at him blankly. She glances back into her house through a window. "I'd like to think we are." And she presses her lips against his before rushing inside. "Dinner here on Friday then?"

"I'll be here at six." Scott replies, hoping that he didn't have a stupid smile on his face.


	4. Why Not

"Where do you think will be the most interesting place to go?" Alex asks staring at him over her math homework, homework that she even bothered to do when half her classmates didn't. "Not for a trip but for a quest about culture?"

"Don't really know what you're talking about." Scott says, she had this whole worldly philosophy that he couldn't begin to understand. All he knew was that it involved asking him really hard thinking questions about life. "But I guess I would say, Russia?"

"Hmm?" She goes back to her work, scribbling numbers down in her small pretty handwriting, calculating the answers without even using a calculator, it really shouldn't have been that attractive to Scott, but for some reason it was. "I was thinking more along the lines of Tibet or Transylvania, maybe Egypt."

"I've never been there, what's the sudden interest?" Scott asks. He had this disturbing feeling, like an itch he couldn't scratch. Call it instinct or a gut feeling of some kind that something bad was going to happen.

Alex stares down at her perfectly completed homework. "My parents are taking a sabbatical after this year is over, and they want me to go with them."

Scott swallows the lump in his throat. It felt like he was swallowing his own tongue. "How long will you be gone then?"

"No longer than a year, depending on what we're doing." Alex says simply. She quickly puts her stuff back into her backpack, free period ending soon. "So, maybe we could spend some more time together?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Scott replies pushing down the feeling of dread he felt in his chest. "Saturday at the park?" Alex nods and rushes out of the library as the bell rings for a changing of classes.

"So she's going to move next year?" Kitty pouts at this new information. The usually very enthusiastic x-men leader was not being very cheerful or enthusiastic about anything. "That, like, totally sucks. Maybe she could stay here at the Institute while her parents go to Egypt."

"She wants to go though." Scott sighs entering the elevator to go down to the training room. "And I shouldn't tell her not to go just because I don't want her to." Kitty kindly chooses not to laugh at his moment of raw emotion.

It might have been the sulking cloud that was hanging over his head that caused him to lose focus and get massacred in the training simulation. The impacts of the orange paint reminded him that he really should put 100% of his effort into this exercise, but why was it so difficult. "I want see you all in the planning room, now!"

Now it may have been the bad week of bad news from Alex, getting butts kicked by Wanda and the Brotherhood, and Wolverine getting kidnapped, but Scott is slightly irked by this whole situation. Especially when the Brotherhood _volunteers_ to join them take down Magneto. "I'm done with this." Scott says storming out of the planning room.

"The Professor's usually really nice, though." Alex says sitting next to him. Scott had angrily driven off in his car after storming out of the planning room. And what did he do after that? He blindly drove to Alex's house. "Is this enemy of his really that scary?"

Scott glances back at the windows from his position on their front porch. He's positive that Alex's parents were sneaking peaks at them to make sure they weren't doing anything suspicious. "Yeah I guess so. I've never had a reason to not listen to the Professor before."

"Perhaps he wanted to show you something?" Alex suggests, perhaps that's why he subconsciously drove to her house. To get her advice which he secretly valued right after the Professor's. "To show you your own mortality, you know, they say that true strength is not knowing how to win, but also how to lose."

"You're advice sound like fortune cookies." Scott jokes feeling his spirit being lifted considerably. "You'll have to let me call you in Egypt or Tibet when I have problems with my life."

Alex gives him a sad smile, but as quickly as it appears; it melts into an innocent smile of curiosity. "You aren't planning on sleeping in your car tonight, are you?" Scott glances back at the plush seats of his red car. As comfortable as they were, he would much rather sleep on his cushioned mattress, though, going back to the Institute was not an option tonight. "We have a guest room that you can sleep in if you want?"

"Oh you poor child, of course you can stay here." Alex's mother says pulling door open with tears in her eyes like she just heard the saddest sob story in the world. "And I bet you haven't had dinner yet. Please come in, Conrad we have a guest staying over tonight."

"I heard." The booming voice of Alex's father says, echoing from the living room, probably from his strategically placed spying position. "I trust that you will be on your best behavior, you two." He gives Scott and Alex hard stares, daring them to ignore his rules, but Scott can clearly feel the majority of the glare was on him.

Alex pats her father on the shoulder; it always looked strange to Scott since Alex barely came up to her father's shoulder. "Relax, dad, nothing's going to happen. Come on, Scott, you're just in time for dinner." With one more soul judging glare, Scott and Alex's father walk to the dining room, where another glaring match will ensue.

"This is the guest room." Alex says opening a small room just down the hall from her own. The inside is decorated with masks, clay pots, little broken figurines, and dusty old tapestries. "I'll have my dad loan you something to wear tonight."

The weirdest part of hanging out with Alex is that she and her family seemed to reject any forms of entertaining technology. They didn't have their TV hooked up to watch anything but the black and white static, and they had an antique radio for decoration. They also hijacked their neighbor's Wi-Fi when they needed the internet. "Are you sure you don't want to call home? We do have a telephone." Alex's mom says gesturing to the very old phone in the corner of the room. It was one of those types of phones that had those spinning dials.

Scott shakes his head and bunkers down in an overly large T-shirt and shorts.

"You're looking unusually tired this morning." Alex's father greets when Scott manages to pull himself out of the bed the next morning. "Alex is out running, she said she'd meet you at the park later today. Breakfast?" He offers a plate piled high with eggs, toast, and muffins.

He felt like such a slob, eating breakfast and then driving around town only to end up at his overlook feeling sorry for himself. "DefCon4!" The only thing that could make his day worse, at least saving a mansion full of training mutants from utter destruction got his mind to focus on something else.

"Aren't you supposed to meet your little boyfriend at the park?" Alex's dad asks looking up from his laptop where he was typing out his newest research paper on some part of Egyptian culture in the hopes of getting some funding to do more intense research once they get to Egypt.

Alex shrugs curling up against the couch editing her English essay. "He'll call when he stops mopping around." Scott had apparently sulked out the door after breakfast while Alex was out on her morning jog. He was still gone by late morning and made no signs of contacting them on his whereabouts. "If he doesn't go back to the mansion tonight then we can worry about it."

"Conrad, Alexandria, I think something's on fire." Her mother's voice floats in through the open back door. There is a dark strip of smoke coming up from some place in the distance. "You don't think we'll get caught up in it, do you?"

Her father shakes his head. "It's probably a camp fire gone crazy." With the threat of a fire extinguished the couple returns to their previous tasks, gardening and research paper writing. There is a momentary moment of peace as things appear to return to normal.

"Do you guys feel that?" Alex asks, setting her paper on the coffee table, it was good enough as it is. The ground beneath her feet had a faint humming feeling like a faraway earthquake. Being in the suburbs, they were quite a bit away from the heart of the city where the quakes seem to be originating from. "What do you think is happening?"

"We can find out, can't we, dear?" Alex's mom says finding her own laptop from their bookshelf. "Ah, it looks like they just set up a password for their Wi-Fi." They shouldn't have been stealing Wi-Fi in the first place; they had the money to buy their own network if they wanted.

Her father shrugs. "Whatever's happening, we can find out later. If the information can only be reached through the internet then the information is not necessary." Her father, at least, believed that only the stuff that one really needs to know can be found in more ways than one, cyberspace and physically, which meant that they didn't need to have certain things like a Wi-Fi network or a TV.

"Alexandria, could you get the phone." They even had a practically useless phone. The people who owned the house before had yanked their phone out of the wall which left the Quincy's with a very antique phone that didn't work half the time. It did this weird humming thing for a couple seconds and then start to ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Alex, its Kitty." Kitty's usually very clear voice is warped by the static and mess created by the old phone. "Scott just wanted me to call to tell you that he's, like, a little busy right now." The phone buzzes loudly.

"Yeah, I kind of guessed that." Somehow the peaceful afternoon had turned into an afternoon filled with loud noises, quakes, and fires. It's probably been the most eventful afternoon that blew past their heads. By the time everything cleared up, the sun had started to set and the supper was being prepared. "Well, see you in school on Monday."

Kitty makes some sort of sound but the irritating buzzing cuts through it and Alex just puts the phone down. "I imagine it was that boy calling to apologize." Alex's dad is big on chivalry and stuff; it's kind of a weird mix with the whole Ancient civilization culture thing.

"Yeah," Alex has learned to just let her father hear what he wants to hear because it avoids a lot of trouble. "So what are we going to do about internet now?" It would be kind of a waste to set up a new network now since they would be leaving to Egypt in less than a year. "Can we get internet in Egypt?"

"The soulless modern world pollutes the purity of cultures and people." Her father preaches he was such a hippie sometimes. "We are a dying thought in this world. The reason why we have war between brothers is because no one takes the time to talk anymore. We should accept people for who they are, not what they should be."

At this point normal people would think 'no this is wrong, you can't be so backward in your thinking' but no one ever said the Quincy's were normal. And it might have been the years of systematic brainwashing (as some would call it) that made Alex believe that her father was right. It was a wonder why Scott even thought of hiding his mutant abilities from her parents.

"_I was raised by them, Scott, I think I would know if they would accept you or not." Alex says trying to convince Scott to stop being such a wimp all the time. "And it's not like we're going to tell the neighbors, they kind of don't like us."_

_Scott sighs, Alex had the feeling that she was somehow breaking through to him, but he sure was stubborn. "I don't know, Alex, I'll think about it." It was the best outcome Alex could have gotten out of that painful conversation. _

But the true test of her parents' belief in accepting people 'for who they are, and not what they should be' came the next morning with the newspaper. "Mutants? How interesting." Her mother says reading the article about yesterday's events. "They're going to have a press conference at the White House to talk about this so-called 'Mutant Menace'."

"Politicians are idiots if they think they can blame everything on these kids." Alex's father says angrily tossing the article he was reading to the side. "What kind of country are we to fight racial wars against everyone that appears to be different?"

"Most of them look harmless, but they have great strength beneath all of that. That's what those politicians fear, people who might be stronger than they are." Her mom says tossing the rest of the newspaper into the recycling bin. "I wonder how things are going to work at school for Alexandria. What if there are mutants there?"

Her parents glance at her. "Oh I'll get it." Her mom says when the phone stars humming.

"Well, are there?" Her father asks, his face is unreadable, he might talk about looking at people equally, even mutants, but he might still fear them. They could keep her from going back to school if they knew about her friends being mutants. "It says that some are from the Xavier Institute, you're friends with those people."

Alex nods. "I know some of them."

"And this Charles Xavier?" He asks reading the name of a crumpled piece of newspaper. "What about him?"

"He's a Professor in genetics. He's bald and in a wheel chair." Alex supplies useless information that she knew her father didn't really care for. "He made the school for 'gifted children'."

He nods just as Alex's mom returns to the table. "That was the principal; they're going to decide what to do after the identities of the mutants are discovered. A possible mutant ban is being talked about; parents don't want their kids associating with these so-called 'monsters'."

"We should invite them over for a dinner party." Her father says which is really scary because he never wants to host dinner parties, in fact, Alex are pretty sure that absolutely **hates** them. Alex and her mom are probably making the same freakishly scared face because these things never happen. "I want to see who these people are first hand."

"I'll go ask them at school on Monday."

Due to their lackage of a TV, the Quincy's decide to watch it at one of those TV stores. "That idiot politician, I could rip the rest of his hair out of his head." Her father mumbles every time he says something stupid. They were the only customers there that day, using the excuse of a blown fuse to watch the press conference. The teenage employee just returns to his massive amounts of texting and video game playing.

"Oh look, that looks like your friend Kitty." Alex's mom points to a blurry picture of Kitty. She was decked out in a black and blue jumpsuit and sitting on some overly muscular guy. They were watching footage taken of mutants fighting another mutant. "She seems like a dependable young woman."

"That one is that boy you always hang out with." It was a simple statement, but what Scott does next will probably decide whether or not Alex is going to have to climb out her window to see him. "He's the leader of this group?"

Alex nods feeling her heart tighten when the large hand closes around Scott's entire head. His head could be crushed like a grape at any second. "What an interesting group if kids." Her mom says slipping out of the store. "We really must meet them sometime before we leave."

"But there are bad mutants out there too you know." Alex says before her parents start inviting evil people to their house for brunch. Her parents could sometimes be like children in a candy store when it came to something they were really interested in. "Just don't go inviting ever mutant you find to our house."

They weren't really listening; they were already planning a menu for the party. "I can't believe they're doing this." Alex's mom complains early the next morning. "They want to permanently ban the mutants from going to school. There's a meeting tonight."

"They probably don't need all this stress right now." Kitty always gets a bit flustered when under stress; she usually ends up making up a plan and then getting in trouble. "So, dinner party this week?"

"I'm already getting ready, I have pasta and salad, and maybe I'll make a pie or two."

"You want us to go have a dinner party at your house?" Scott asks. His entire day was full of whispers, fights, name-calling, and just total chaos. Not to mention the fact that he had to be on his best behavior if he wanted to go to school the rest of the week. "Are you sure that's a good idea, what if someone sees us there?"

Alex sighs. "I guess we could have the party at the mansion."

"Which is still being built right now." Scott adds in. Every day after school they were going to have to work on rebuilding the mansion. No contracting company would want to help them. "You could bring lunch sometime? And your parents can come too if they want to help."

"Just don't let them near the computers. They only know how to research, chat online friends, and write papers." Alex says thinking of the chaos her parents could cause. "So, over the weekend?"

Scott nods, at least he had one thing to look forward to.

"So this is the Xavier Institute." Mr. Quincy says gingerly pulling a cart stacked high with energy sustaining foods. "Diligent kids." All the kids, young and old were working on bits and pieces of the mansion from the electrical mainframe, to the paint outside, to the front lawn scenery, and everything in between.

"You must be the Quincy's, the kids have told me quite a bit about you." It's the Professor. His wheel chair meeting them across the lawn since the driveway leading up to the house was still under construction. "Please, come inside, I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

Mr. Quincy walks next to the Professor as the women start getting food ready to pass out. "It's so great you could come, Alex." Kitty says already eating her plate before anyone else notices the food. "I love your mom's cooking, she should, like, come by more often."

"Yeah, I wish I could help, but it seems like you guys have everything taken care of." Their mutant powers were really useful in these types of things. Fire to melt asphalt, telepathy to move things, and a million other things that made the construction go by faster. "Maybe I could help you program the computer."

"That would be great. Bobby's already made a blackout." It's Mr. McCoy, a previous teacher at the school. He was looking unusually blue these days. "Would you like to start with something like the fountain?"

The pretty fountain that had stood at the center of the lawn was totally destroyed. "Why would you need to program a fountain, doesn't it come in the base?" they seemed to have everything ready for the fountain.

"Actually," Mr. McCoy says leading her towards the fountain. "We sometimes use it for security reasons. So we can't have lasers blasting at students every time they walk past it, now can we?" It made sense; they probably had a lot of enemies.

He pulls a panel off the side of the fountain. "This is our hard drive for this defense unit. We need to program it to run only when a certain program starts." He had a pencil and notepad. "I don't suppose you know how to create programs out of thin air."

"I interned as a computer programmer's assistant one summer. It can't be too bad." Alex says typing in the simple code for raising the fountain. "As long as you know what you're doing with the codes." Mr. McCoy had already done most of the work so finishing the fountain was a breeze.

"Is something bothering you?" Mr. McCoy asks when Alex rubs her neck again, the back of it turning a bright red color. "You're scratching your neck quite a bit." She'd be drawing blood soon if she wasn't careful.

Alex shakes her head. "It feels like there's an itch that I can't keep away." Mr. McCoy nods glancing at the top of the mansion where a laser shooting mutant was doing a poor job of sneaking looks at the girl.

"It looks like everything's a go here." Alex puts the little computer containing the weaponizing code back inside the base. "Jean, you can start moving the angel." The red head nods and the angel start to float in the air.

Ororo used rain clouds to put water in the fountain. "You've gotten quite close with the kids this year."

"Yeah, especially Kitty and Kurt, they're great to be around." Her eyes wander upward toward a shirtless Scott Summers. He and the other one, Logan, were talking about something as they fix the satellite. "Everyone's really amazing."

"I think you'd be good for him." Ororo says in her very elusive way. "We can all tell that he's changed since he met you." Alex glances back over at Scott, this time catching his stare.

"Sorry about not meeting you at the park the other day." Scott says when they 'run' into one another in the hall. "Um, do you wan—"

"Scott!" Kurt appears out of nowhere with his brimstone smoke. Alex still hadn't really gotten the hang of seeing him in his fluffy blue form rather than his induced hologram. "It's for you, it's Alex. Uh, his brother, Alex."

It had never occurred to Scott (or me) that his girlfriend had the same name as his brother, who was apparently trapped in Mexico after winning a surfing competition. "I just have to get my brother and then I'll be back."

Of course, nothing is as easy as it seems. "Scott, what's wrong? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?" She almost didn't recognize his voice under all the exhaustion in his voice. "Did something happen in Mexico?"

"You could say that." He replies. "Let's just say that a vengeful spirit wanted me dead."

"You got beat up by a ghost?"

"Trust me, if she was a ghost, she sure can kick pretty hard." Scott replies sounding more like himself again. "I guess we won't be doing anything soon."

Alex looks over at the stuff on her desk. "Actually I think we can, have you guys ever been on a cruise to the Bahamas? I won this raffle thing from this essay website and got ten tickets to a cruise. Everyone at the Institute can come too."

"Getting away from Bayville for a couple days, that sounds great to me. I'll ask the Professor." Scott says. "But don't your parents want to come?"

"Nah, they don't do well on boats." Alex says, and besides, it was her winnings, she should be able to spend it with whomever she wants. "We can have Logan or Ororo come with us as a chaperone." Alex yawns, it was in the middle of the night after all. "We can work it later."


	5. Paradise?

The easy part of their plan was figuring out who wanted to go. Their group included: Scott, Alex, Jean, Kitty, Kurt, Jamie, Bobby, Tabitha, Amara, and Ororo. The troublesome part was convincing the Professor to let the students go on this trip. Alex's parents were surprisingly willing to let her go on the cruise; they probably just wanted to have some quiet time to finish setting up their sabbatical to Egypt, something the kids weren't mentioning out loud. "How is the persuading going?" Alex whispers poking her head into the doorway of the conference area where the older students were using logic to convince the Professor to let them go. Everything seemed to be in the students' favor.

"Jean and Scott have been talking to him nonstop for almost an hour now." Bobby explains, probably an exaggeration, but it appeared that Scott and Jean were their last hope of going on the cruise. "If they can't do it, no one can."

The group tries to eavesdrop on the conversation. "Oh, very well, you may go." The Professor sighs in resignation. "I supposed I could also arrange for the other students to go as well." With no need to hide their eavesdropping they stopped all pretense as they all chatted about this first real vacation they were going to hav group. "I fear for the safety of the cruise ship, I really do." The Professor mumbles to himself.

Kitty drags Alex off through the walls to her room. The other cruise-goers are probably doing the same, running off to finish their packing. The whole fazing through walls is still a strange concept for Alex, not feeling a solid wall slam into her face when she runs head first into it. "I'm just not sure what to bring, you know?" Kitty tosses her clothes around in her closet. She already has half her closet in her suitcase and she's considering more?

"We're going to the Bahamas; we're going to be in our bathing suit all day." Alex comments thinking about her bag. It only contained a few toiletries, a towel, three shirts, three pairs of shorts, and two bathing suits. The main reason Alex was worried about the amount of clothing Kitty was bringing was because of the small helpless fact that Kitty and Alex would be rooming together.

They had a few more preparations to do, mainly transportation, emergency contact numbers, and all the other stuff that Alex's parents and the Professor worried about. "Alex, I'm, like, so glad you invited us." Kitty says as they board the plane to take them to the cruise ship. "Bayville is totally getting on my nerves."

Kitty had strategically placed herself between Scott and Alex. Scott frowns at the fazing mutant; he's obviously already suspicious of her and her scheming partner, Kurt, just a few seats behind them. Of course, Alex was too naïve to think that Kitty could possibly be planning anything.

When they landed, Ororo ushered them to the bus that was supposed to take them to their ship, and it was a beautiful ship. A large plain white ship, just like every cruise ship they ever saw in movies. And before Scott could say another word to Alex, Kitty drags her off to their shared room, claiming something along the lines of 'roommate meeting' or something like that.

The rooms weren't as large as they were probably hoping for, but then again, this was the prize of an essay contest so they shouldn't really be complaining. There was a large party on the upper decks of the ship as they set sail. There was music, games, food, and socializing people everywhere. "Do you know how hard it is to be alone with you?" Scott asks as he finally managed to whisk Alex away while Kitty was distracted by some dancing people. Scott leads them to one of the lower decks and leans his elbows against the railing, enjoying the cool sea breeze.

Alex laughs. "I'm just glad that you guys were allowed to come, I don't know who else I would ask." If Scott really thought about it long enough, all of Alex's closest friends were from the Institute. There were rumors going around the school that Alex was also a mutant since she spends so much time with them. "And if it weren't for Kitty, I wouldn't have met any of you guys."

She hooks her arm inside one of Scotts and rests her head against his shoulder. "I'll miss you." They hadn't really talked about her leaving, but it was a constant fact on the horizon. Scott opens his mouth to say something else when he hears a pair of very familiar snickers. "Kurt, Kitty." He turns around just in time to see Kitty and Kurt use their mutant powers to escape from their spying positions.

"They were always easily amused." Alex says seemingly unfazed by the fact that Kitty and Kurt had seen them together. "Don't worry; they'll stop when we get to the Bahamas."

But that would mean they'd have to deal with a whole day at sea with Kitty and Kurt's taunting. Scott wasn't sure his sanity could deal with that, especially since he had to room with Kurt. "Hey, isn't that?" He points to some dark shadows out in the sea. He was seriously hoping this was just a hallucination and that he really was going insane.

"It's Abraham Lincoln, and the Tower of London." Alex says, unfortunately also seeing the figures, which turned out to be an ice sculptures. There is only one person on the entire ship that could do this type of stuff. "Bobby, right?"

Scott nods and heads in the direction the ice sculptures were coming from. "Bobby!" Bobby turns around a bit too fast and falls over the rail that he had been standing on.

"I'll go get Jean." Alex says running off to find Jean; luckily the red head must have also seen the ice sculptures and almost collided with the younger girl. "Oh good, I was just going to come and find you."

Lucky for Bobby, Jean got there just in time to save him from falling into the ocean where he'd probably be cut in half by the ship and then eaten by sharks. "Quick Amara, melt that sucker." Tabitha says as they were headed straight for the iceberg.

Amara raises her arms, but her normal fire abilities weren't appearing as they usually did. "I can't, I don't know what's wrong."

"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile here." Scott lectures after destroying the iceberg he had created as a tribute to the Titanic movie.

Alex gives Bobby an apologetic smile and rushes after Scott. "I'm sure Bobby meant well with his creations." She had seen him plenty angry before, most of the time was when he ranted about his failure as a leader and a role model.

Scott sighs knowing that he shouldn't take his anger out on her. "He should have been more careful. He never thinks of the consequences and I have to clean up after them."

"You should trust them more." Alex says wrapping her smaller fingers in between Scott's. "You're a good leader, but you can't take care of them forever, you know. One day, they will be leaders of their own team of x-men." That plan was far off into the future, hopefully.

"Yeah, you're right. But that doesn't mean I won't be watching them. They still need a lot to training." Scott says seriously, though his dark mood had dissolved. This was his vacation, no need to needlessly worry about the younger mutants; Ororo could handle them for now.

Alex nods. "Great, now let's rejoin that party." She drags him off towards the stairs. The party still had lots of food and music. It was nice to see mutants mingling so easily with everyone else. "Dance with me."

He always felt really awkward when he danced with her; she had a small petite body able to perform perfectly fluid movements while Scott was more stiff and unsure of how he should move in relation to Alex's.

"I saw you and Scott dancing out there." Kitty says smugly. Their cabin was way too small for comfort. Their suitcases were piled right next to the door, their clothing mixing together, and they had to share a bathroom, something that wasn't very pretty after a while. "You two are so cute together." She said it in the most irksome way, no wonder Scott was always annoyed with her and Kurt's antics.

It was easy to ignore Kitty for the rest of the night due to their need for sleep while ignoring the small confines of their cabin. "Kitty, wake up, we're going to miss breakfast." The small bathroom was not enough for the two of them.

"I'm up," Kitty announces through a yawn, stretching her arms above her head, just barely avoid hitting Alex in the face. "Man, I'm so cramped right now. I can't wait to get out of here and go to the beach!"

The dinning area had large circular tables, able to fit up to six people. It seemed as if everyone had conspired against Scott. "Why don't you and Alex sit over here?" Kurt suggests pointing to the table closest to the younger mutants'.

"Check this out." Alex skips back Scott with two plates of food, one piled high with breakfast items, and the other was a perfectly round and golden pancake with a whip cream smiley face on it. "I figured you needed a little cheering up this morning."

"Thanks," Scott says gladly accepting the pancake. Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt and Kitty were doing a weird mocking imitation of the exchange using a croissant. It would have been a nice little meal if it weren't for the sudden fire that exploded on a table not too far from theirs. And before Scott could say anything else, Jean was already moving the lobster tank room centerpiece to put out the flames. "Oh boy."

A frantic woman, probably trying to escape the flames pushes against Jean, causing the entire contents of the tank to pour out. "Quick, grab the lobsters." Alex says rushing to pluck the lobsters off table clothes and put them back into the tank, which still had some water left in it. Unfortunately for them, the lobsters didn't seem to want to cooperate causing them to reveal more of their powers.

"They're all mutants!" and with that horrified comment, everyone rushes out of the dinning area. And to make matters worse, Ororo was just about to enter the dinning area, and she did not look happy at all.

Alex sulks in the room, not even in the mood to go swimming even after changing into her new brown and aquamarine bathing suit. "It's all my fault, I should have known people would react this way." Alex says when Scott finally managed to drag her out of the room. "Maybe we should have just stayed home like the Professor said we should. I could have sold the tickets and we could just have a bonfire or something."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Scott says as they pass by an older couple. Sure he was used to getting these types of glares and whispers, but Alex didn't deserve to be grouped with them and feel this hatred after she worked to get them this vacation. "Well, we'll be docking the Bahamas soon; at least we can get off the ship for a while."

"Attention passengers," The ship's speaker system came on. "Looks like we've got some rough weather ahead, so we won't be proceeding directly to the Bahamas, instead we'll anchor here off St. Sebastian Island and wait it out. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Alex groans. "I think I'll just wait in the room." She gives Scott a weak smile when he shows his worried face. "I'll feel better when we get to the Bahamas."

"Hey Jean, can you help me with something?" Scott tracked the red head down as she walked to check out the view of the island from their ship. At least with their mutant status, they naturally cleared everyone out. "Alex isn't feeling well. I feel l should get her something, you know, to forget about their whole mutant thing."

Jean smiles knowingly. "Come on, we're going to take a little mission to get your girlfriend a present." She points to the island, just because the ship wouldn't let them off didn't mean they could just go by themselves.

"Hey, Alex, you'll never believe what we just thought of." Kitty says excitedly jumping on top of Alex's curled up form. "We can use Kurt's abilities to go to the island by ourselves, no one will even know we're gone!"

"Sure, why not." Alex says against her better judgment. The three friends grab hands and disappear in a puff of smoke. Kurt had the idea to appear in some trees, so no one would find out about his mutant powers. "This is so much better than that ship."

It seemed like everyone else had the same idea, Bobby, Amara, and Tabitha were there to get Amara some healing bubble water from the hot springs. Then there was Jean and Scott who were on their own little 'mission'. "That sounds like a great idea." Kitty says quickly jumping at the chance at some real hot springs water. "Do you two want to join us?" She glances at Scott and Jean.

"Nah, we have a little job to do first." Scott says. He was starting to doubt his ability to find something better than healing hot springs. But, it was the least he could do, after Alex had helped him through his dark moods.

"This is the stuff." Alex says settling into the hot springs glad that she had changed into the bathing suit in the morning. "Just the right temperature." It seemed to be just what everyone needed to take the load off.

Kurt switches off his inducer, with the lack of tourists around, the hot springs were completely empty. "It tingles my fur. Are you sure you don't want any of this, Bobby?" The Iceman was the only one in their group not finding paradise in the hot springs.

"Hey, I'm just here for moral support." He creates an armchair out of ice. "I don't do hot water." It made sense, but he was seriously missing out on something magical. It was like all their troubles just melted away, even Amara was feeling better, and back to her funny self.

It might have been her slightly more delicate skin, but the water seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. "I think I've had enough hot springs." The first sign that something was wrong were the water bubbling like it was boiling. "Where's Amara?"

"She's still down there!" Kitty says. Amara's head pops out in her fiery mutant power form. "I think it's time we got out of here."

Bobby nods creating a half tunnel slide down the side of the mountain. "Time to bobsled it." The ride might have been fun, if the mountain itself wasn't shaking like it was about to erupt with oozing lava. And the quakes must be wrecking havoc down below.

Alex may not have super powers like the others, but she did have muscle from all the swimming she did, which was enough to keep a collapsing shelf from crushing an elderly woman. "It seems to be stopping." Jean says as the ground gradually stops shaking.

"Uh oh, busted again." The memory of their heroics during breakfast was still fresh in their minds. And the way the locals were crowding around them didn't look too friendly in their eyes. So none of them were quite expecting cheers to be erupting from the crowd nor did they expect to be hoisted on the shoulders and paraded around like royalty. "Hey, they don't hate us."

That was an understatement. Everyone had their own fans and groupies, along with parents taking their pictures and getting autographs as good luck mementos. "At least everyone's enjoying themselves now." Alex says settling down next to Scott at the edge of town, away from most of the prying eyes. There were quite a few locals taking pictures of them, and gawking at their powers which the other mutants showed off generously.

Scott nods, now if only the rest of the world could react like this, then maybe peace would be possible in their lifetime. "Oh, I got you something. Jean helped too, but I hope it makes you feel better." It was a small little thing, but he got it inscribed to make it more personal.

"Can you put it on for me?" Alex turns around and lifts up her hair letting Scott clasp the flower pendent necklace around her neck. It had a silver backing with their initials which cost all the paper money he had brought with him. "Thanks, you know you didn't have to, right?"

"I wanted to." It wasn't the way Scott imagined having alone time with her, but at least they weren't being hated by a ship full of angry people. They were even given the center table at the party the locals were having. It wasn't a gourmet dinner at a five star restaurant, but they had all the juice they could rink and plenty of fresh local food.

"This is just what I have been asking for." Tabitha says. "To be treated like a queen." After all they've been through, it was a reasonable wish. Saving the world and being the secret heroes of Bayville really didn't have these kinds of perks yet.

Alex glances back at the ship, there were an unusual amount of storm clouds gathering in one place. In the heat of the moment, they had forgotten about their chaperone. "I think we're been found out, you guys." And just as the clouds had started to approach the island, the volcano really erupted with spewing lava and everything.

All at once, there were so many problems to take care of, the lava, for one, and the fire, the collapsing buildings. "Oh no, they're people out there." Kurt points to some party-goers who had falling into the ocean, it wasn't very deep, but the waters would be rough during that time. And the lava was closing in on the water; they would become boiled in no time.

"Don't worry about it," Alex says pulling off her pool dress and diving into the water before anyone could voice a complaint about it. The locals were smart enough not to grab on to her with all their weight. Swimming with one other person was hard enough; add in rough waters made the shore seem farther away than before. The lava was also getting closer, the only other option she had was to swim over to the extended platform with a rock base and have the people climb up it before the lava boiled the ocean water.

"You don't have any powers; you shouldn't be risking your life like this." Scott says helping them onto the platform. Storm had gotten there to quell most of the fire, but everyone else seemed to disappear into the mist of all the chaos. "Have you seen Amara? Tabitha said she might have gone up to the crater."

Alex shakes her head hoping that Amara hadn't gotten swallowed up by the lava at some point. It seemed like everyone else had gotten the same memo and were making their way up the volcano. And then, as if by magic, everything stopped, like the volcano had gone back to sleep. "I don't know how to explain it. It was like the volcano and I, it was like we somehow merged together."

And the locals were cheering again; even in all the loss they had encountered because of the volcano the x-men were still their heroes. "Well this is a surprise." Storm admits. "But that doesn't excuse the two of you for leaving the ship, as for the rest of you, I know you were only trying to help Amara, but you should have let me know what you were doing. We'll talk more about this when you get back to the ship."

The ship, just a dreaded reminder of their hated status. "Next time, we can just have a party at the Institute." Alex says as Scott and Jean walk towards the beach, the others could find their own way back. Her new necklace was tucked under her dress, why give Kurt and Kitty another thing to tease them about.

"At least this is one good memory from this vacation." Scott says as they land on the ship. Things couldn't really get any worse than they were now, so things could only get better, right?

"The next big thing will be prom and then graduation." Alex says counting off the events on her fingers. She left one event off and that was seeing the Quincy's off to their sabbatical in Egypt. "I can't believe how fast this year went by. It feels like I just met everyone and now I have to leave again."

"You could always stay you know." Scott says knowing that it was a lost cause to try to convince her otherwise. When was she going to have another chance to travel the world with her parents and learn about culture and history? "Or I could email you?"  
>Alex laughs. "When I have internet access, you know how my parents are, really low-tech people." Not to mention the fact that they were really weird people as well. They would probably want to do all the weirdest things and stick out like a sore thumb amongst the other researchers. "I'll send you post cards."<p> 


	6. Can I Have This Dance?

They weren't allowed to go to prom. The reasoning from the principal was the fact that they had constantly been causing disturbances with their mutant status. "It's such a bummer that you don't get to go to prom this year." Kitty says lounging on her bed. They had seen Bobby and Kurt running around with boxes full of stuff earlier in the evening. "I mean, you only have prom once in your life, right?"

"It's just a dance." Alex says reasonably, but she would be lying if she said that she hadn't been looking forward to the dance. Her parents had gone to an event together that involved corsages and boutonnieres, they called it their prom. "And you can go with Lance in a couple of years." The couple hadn't really been talking too much lately, but their feelings for each other were still strong, so there was still hope for them.

Kitty just gives her a look that says otherwise, but Alex still held onto her hope. "So what are you and Scott going to do on the big night? I know Jean is flying out to see her family before graduation. We could go see a movie."

Alex shrugs. Prom was something that children not only look forward to, but parents as well. It's alike a rite of passage into adulthood, that your teenage years have been as complete as they should be. Parents wait eager for the day where their young teenager would become a fine young adult, and they move into their adulthood with someone important at their side. "I actually should be packing for Egypt." Egypt was rearing its head just around the corner and the closer the day came, the more mixed her feelings became.

"We'll still be here when you get back." Kitty says reassuringly. Either of them really knew how to feel about the event, so they chose to ignore it for the time being. "Do you want me to drive you back home? I'm getting better at it!"

Alex had seen Kitty drive before, if it weren't for her fazing ability, she'd probably be dead, along with the poor chaperone that got roped into driving with her. "No thanks, I think I'll ask Scott." They part ways in the hallway, the mansion had become sort of a second home for Alex in the past year. It was still huge, but kind of homey after you got used to it and all the people who lived there. "Hey Scott, could you possibly give me a ride home?"

Despite their relationship, it was still kind of weird asking Scott for such a request. "Yeah, sure," he carefully shuts the door behind him and leads her towards the garage. Scott and the other guys were definitely up to something in the living room area. Kurt had deliberately appeared in front of her before she could enter the room. "I actually have a favor to ask you."

"Ok," it wasn't like Scott to ask her for favors. Usually, if something bad were to happen, he'd call and warn her not to go out that day. Or he'd call to tell her he'd pick her up at a certain time to go spend the afternoon together. "What is it?"

"You make sure you have internet in Egypt?" Alex heart falls a little, she had been expecting something more serious than this silly request, but she found it amusing nonetheless.

Alex nods. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure I can work something out in the middle of the desert." She pecks him gently on the cheek and walks to her house. Her parents had made it a habit to watch them through the curtains; they were getting good at it too.

"Charles Xavier invited us over for dinner on Saturday." Her mom says casually when Alex enters her house. Her parents had assumed their 'we weren't spying on you' pose which included reading the newspaper and scrolling aimlessly down a webpage. "It's a formal event so I pulled out a dress for you to wear."

Alex climbs the stairs two at a time to see what kind of abomination her mother had pulled out of her closet and it was surprising to see a relatively normal dress sitting on her bed. "I suppose it's the end of the year good-bye party."

Strange things were happening within her social group, which meant strange things were happening at the Institute and in her own home. Besides the odd behavior on Scott's part the night before, her mother had pulled Alex away from her lunch in order to do her hair. "Stop moving your head, Alexandria." Her mother roughly forces Alex's head to face straight ahead again.

"Why are we getting ready so early? The party doesn't start for five hours." Alex watches her mom curl her way through Alex's hair, creating easy waves of soft hair. As if her parents couldn't get weirder, her father was oddly ironing out his tux, the same tux that he wore only for special occasions. "Ok, there is something obviously going on."

"What are you talking about?" Alex's mom laughs; her father just gives her a look that reads 'just go along if you don't want to get hurt'. "Now, come over here so I can do your makeup."

In between applying the makeup and fixing her hair, Alex finally got into her dress. It was a faint beige and pink color with a single shoulder strap that came just below her knees. It had little tiny cloth flowers and sparkling beads all over it. It was a beautiful dress.

Her parents met her down stairs in their formal wear, her dad as his perfect creaseless tux, and her mother's wine red full length dress. The three of them pile into their family car and make the drive to the Xavier Institute in relative silence. Alex was carefully keeping a suspicious eye on her parents. Something was definitely up.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Kitty exclaims, totally flushed with excitement and keeping down what could only be the biggest secret ever. She also wore a very nice dress, a blue one the same color blue as her x-men uniform. "You can leave your jackets here, and follow me to the party." She had the slightest gittiness in her step as they neared the living room which Scott had tried to keep Alex away from.

He was so nervous, more nervous than the idea of failing the Professor and everyone who believed in him, more nervous than meeting Alex's parents for the first time, even more nervous than leading the x-men in their first mission. Yes, Scott was so nervous that his soul was practically shaking like a leaf. He would be hopping from one foot to the other if it weren't for the sounds of feet coming his way. "Scott, what is all of this about?"

Scott finally glances up at Alex, and it's really embarrassing how fast his mouth dries up. "Well, why don't I just show you?" He pushes the door to the room open, watching Alex's eyes widen in shock. He had managed to employee all the x-kids to help him prepare the room and even managed to convince Alex's parents to help. The only thing left was for her to agree to it. "I thought that since I couldn't take you to prom, I would bring prom to you."

"It's beautiful." She steps into the room, red and gold streamers hung in arches around the ceiling, then even had dozens of red and gold balloons scattered around the floor. "You guys did this all by yourself?" they even got a disco ball to reflect rainbow colored lights around.

"We're mutants after all, what did you expect?" Scott says proudly. Though, getting everyone to work together was a bit of a hassle, not to mention the fact that he had to bribe a few of them. "So I guess I should put this on you then?" he holds a rose corsage that was the same color as her dress.

He had to thank his lucky stars that Alex's parents were supportive of his plan. The flowers matched her dress perfectly. "But I don't have a boutonniere for you."

"Don't worry about it, dear." Her father says walking a same colored single flower to his daughter. They really did their part in making Scott's plan work out. "Now, put it on him and smile for the camera."

Alex nervously clips it onto his lapel and they both turn just in time for the cameras. There were quite a few, one for the Quincy family, and then a few others for Kurt, Kitty, and all the others who wanted to be a part of the magic moment. They got a few good ones before everyone started to butt in.

They had a couple of guys only pictures, and then girls only pictures. And then things started to get out of hand. "You really didn't have to do this." Alex says once the minicrisis was over.

"I wanted to." Scott replies as the Professor ushers everyone out to the dinning room for their own little dinner party. At least Scott could count on another hour or two before the kids came back. The last one out pushes a button on the stereo to play a soft waltz. "Can I have this dance?"

"Of course," She puts a small hand in his and his other hand goes to her waist as he leads her slowly around the large room. He kept watching their feet to make sure he doesn't accidently crush Alex's toes because of his terrible dancing ability. "I can't believe you still remember how to waltz." Dancing without loud fast paced music was becoming a lost art. She kicks off her white heels while their dinner arrives via Mr. McCoy.

Scott realized that this is the first time they ever had dinner all to themselves without the distractions of other conversations. "I actually can't believe your dad agreed to let me do this." He nearly had a heart attack when Mr. Quincy picked up the phone when he called to talk about the plan. The only other option that was worse would be if Alex picked up the phone. "He's almost as intimidating over the phone as he is in real life."

"Well, that's how he gets the airlines to move us up from business class all the time." Alex admits digging into the food in a very unladylike manner, who needed prom anyways? "We're going to leave the day of graduation you know."

"Yeah, I heard." Mr. Quincy might have mentioned that this night would probably be Alex's last really good memory of Bayville for a while. The next couple of weeks are no doubt going to be filled with tears, picture taking, and spending as much time with everyone before they leave. "It's no big deal though. I mean, who wants to sit through speeches and then calling the names of the entire senior class?"

Alex glances over as Mr. McCoy comes back with dessert, blueberry cobbler. "Doesn't this bring back memories?" If it weren't for blueberry cobbler, their relationship would probably be still at the handholding stage where Scott is too afraid to meet her parents. "Did you plan this?"

Scott shakes his head, not even he, the great leader of the x-men could have thought about these tiny details, especially with all the other little things that had to be done for this night. "I'll probably have to thank Kitty and Kurt later." Something he was personally not looking forward to.

The other dinner party would be ending soon; even the Professor couldn't hold all those kids back for long. "Come on, one more dance." Alex says walking around the table after downing her cobbler in practically two seconds. There was only a soft classical piece on the stereo now, leaving the two of them to just sway in each other's presence.

The heat radiating from Alex's body, and the smell of her hair were amongst his favorite things. It was odd how much he liked the way she smells, not that he would ever tell anyone that. But she smelled kind of like home? Like cinnamon, apple pie, and honey all rolled into one. They carefully step back from each other was the clear sounds of running feet close in on the door. "It's time for a real party!" One of the x-kids say and the music changes to something faster and upbeat.

"Did you enjoy your lover's night?" Kitty asks in her usual teasing manner bumping in between Scott and Alex. She had such a noncovert way of being nosy. It was now more of a dance party rather than a prom, but it just might have been his old fashioned views of dancing and his general dislike for that type of music. Sure he would listen to it, but not all the time.

"Yeah, it was great." Alex says as she is pulled away to actually join the dance party like the other kids her age. She casts Kitty a suspicious eye. "Did you know about this?" She waves a hand at the elaborate decorations; it was a massive room after all.

Kitty shakes her head. "I had to pull it out of Kurt."

"We're really going to miss her." The Professor says wheeling up to Scott as he stands away from the dancing teenagers. It didn't take telepathy to know what Scott was thinking at the moment and he was glad that the Professor was the only one to see Scott's depressed face. "She has become quite a member of our group." A total understatement in Scott' mind.

It was probably the food, they always brought food over when the mansion was still under construction, or maybe it was the undying curiosity from her parents that made each of them feels special. Mr. Quincy would play games with them, mutant baseball, dodge ball, volleyball. And Mrs. Quincy would puff up proudly like a mother hen when they told them about their accomplishments. It was kind of hard to not see them in their lives.

Which was why most of them, if not all of them went to see her off early the day of the senior graduation. The morning was hectic as all mornings were at the Institute, but there was a sense of urgency, and as they neared the airport, everyone had a sudden somber moment. The Quincys were still in line for their tickets, Mr. Quincy noticing their approach before the others did.

"Why are you all here?" Alex asks when she rushes over to them. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying herself to sleep the night before, and she was sure her tears would spill over the more she stayed with them. "Don't you have a graduation to be getting to?" That question was directed at Scott who was the group-appointed leader.

"Well, we had to see you off first." Scott says before being forcefully shoved aside by her closest friends, Kitty and Kurt, the former one already in tears. They had a massive hugging party.

Alex is practically being passed around like a prized pet. She gets yanked into Kitty's arms every few people before being pulled into another bonecrushing hug from someone else. Scott is only slightly embarrassed by his friends. The international airport was in one of the main cities near Bayville, which involved almost an hour drive from the mansion. Therefore, they weren't recognized as mutants and kicked out for being a terror to the airlines.

She finally gets around to hugging Jean, Ororo, and the Professor. "Thanks for seeing me off, Scott." She has to stand on her tippy toes in order to loop her arms around his neck. His arms naturally wined their way around her tiny petite waist and he buries his face in her hair. "Email me whenever you want, I'll snag some internet somehow."

He snickers at the last comment and reluctantly lets her go. For some reason he was flashing back to his first crush on Jean and how he jealously got into arguments with Duncan if only to get the attention of the red-head. He had been more than slightly crushed when Jean had chosen Duncan instead of Scott. That heart crushing feeling, it was happening all over again, only worse. So much worse. "Does this mean we're breaking up?" He just had to ask it, whether it was true or not.

"I hope we aren't." She replies already walking backwards to her parents, who were watching the tearful exchange by the security check point. She always could easily remove any of his insecurities, another aspect of her that he would no doubt miss. "I'll be back in a year you know. It's not like its forever."

Forever may have been a long time in his head, but the idea of facing the most powerful mutant to ever walk the earth did well to keep his mind off the forever idea. Which she had assured wouldn't be so; he just had to wait a whole year. "We're having a hard time pinpointing his existence outside of ancient Egypt." Beast says as they once again came to a dead end in their research.

"Egypt? Alex is in Egypt right now." Scott says realizing the one good thing that came out of this. "I could call her and see if she knows anything about this Apocalypse guy." The Professor nods and Scott is practically skipping to his room.

There's always the off chance that Alex won't pick up and that their connection will be spotty at best, but it's worth a shot, right? "Hello? This is Conrad Quincy's daughter, how can I help you?" She sounded tired, more than usual.

It was a lack of planning on his part that he had forgotten about the time zone changes. "Um, it's Scott? Did I call at a bad time?" And the fact that she has to say that she's her father's daughter is also kind of strange in his eyes.

"Oh Scott, hi!" She says seeming to perk up a bit. "Sorry about that, there's just this weird angry rival of my father's. Having a life crisis already?" How long has it been since she left? No more than a week.

"Well, you could say that. What can you tell me about Apocalypse, Beast traced him back to ancient Egypt, but that's about it?" Scott says settling on his bed, pretending for a moment that things were a few weeks ago. On the other end of the line Alex is scrambling around, rustling through papers, and other things.

"I think I know who you're talking about." Alex finally says excitedly. "The locals told me these stories and they mention the name Apocalypse. In the stories his name was En Sabah Nur, he ruled in Giza about 5,000 years ago. Sound like the right person?"

Scott nods writing the name on the back of a random piece of homework he never turned in. "Do you know where his tomb might be? Or where he died, anything like that?"

"Uh, Giza? I really don't know, there are a lot of pyramids here, oh, and the Great Sphinx, but none of them mention anything about En Sabah Nur or Apocalypse." Alex says trailing off. "I'll ask around."

"Thanks, I'll call you soon." Scott puts his phone away and rushes back to the Professor with their first actual lead. Ok, so maybe it was nice that his girlfriend was in Egypt when the most powerful mutant in the world hails from Egypt and might actually be coming back alive.

En Sabah Nur seemed to generate better results than his other name, but they lost him in Giza like Alex had told them. "Do you think we could meet up with her, she could show us the way." Kitty says getting sidetracked from saving the world. She was going through some sort of withdrawal symptoms and had weird mood swings. "I mean, she's in Giza right now!"

The Professor probably knows that Kitty actually wants to do, but he agrees anyways. Which was why they had to make a detoured stop at camp the Quincy's were residing in for the moment, her parents seemed to still trust them enough to let their daughter travel with them on their x-jet. "Oh yeah, I know where this place is. It's the Great Sphinx." Alex says after hearing the description of their destination. "But it's never been opened before."

"I believe the entrance is housed underneath the Sphinx somewhere." The Professor says as they land at the Sphinx with no way to get inside. "Does that sound about right?"  
>Alex nods looking at the archeological dig plans her parents were going to be a part of in the coming weeks. "They think that there should be a passageway somewhere under here." She draws a circle in the sand. "Kitty, you should start here, there should be stairs if we're correct. You should find some sort of lever, push it and then get out of there. Oh, and be careful."<p>

"I'll let you know what I find." She replies diving into the sand. They hear a slight gasp and a loud dull falling sound. "I think I found something, some stairs." There is a loud rumbling coming from beneath their feet.

The ground in between the Sphinx's paws open like a great schism. The stone blocks shift and move to form a long stair case that went deep beneath the sands. "I want you to stay in the x-jet." The Professor says pointedly towards Alex. "Who knows what could be down there."

"Of course, no mutant powers and all." Alex says hanging back a bit from the stairs, but when the Professor doesn't make a move towards the stairs, she shuffles back towards the jet.

As amazing as a private jet is, it gets boring after a while, and by a while, Alex meant a couple hours. And in those couple of hours, she just sat there and worried. It all started when the door at the bottom of the stairs closed up, and then these statues coming alive or at least that's what Alex assumed was happening through the radio. "Hello? Shadowcat? Are you there? Can anyone hear me?" It's Mr. McCoy.

"I'm here." Alex says perking up from her lounging position practicing her ancient Egyptian. They must have gotten separated and lost all their radios. "But you probably already knew that."

"Actually, we have something that you might be able to help us with." The Professor says telepathically. "There are some hieroglyphics in this room. What can you make of it?"

And then it was like she was transported into the exact room the Professor was in, staring at the same wall that he was looking at. "It's a story, about En Sabah Nur." It was his tomb so it should have his history written somewhere on the walls. "A lot of the locals know it. They say that there once was a baby, abandoned in the desert for his gray skin and blue lips. A sand bandit, Ball, found him and saw the strength in the baby's eyes and named him En Sabah Nur or The First One.

"Around the same time a Pharaoh, Ramma-Tut, fell from the stars in some technology that he used to rule over the people. Word of En Sabah Nur's incredible strength soon reached the pharaoh's ears. Ramma-Tut feared the power of warrior and he ordered his army to kill En Sabah Nur.

"During the fight, Ball died and en Sabah Nur became enraged his mutant abilities appeared and vowed to get revenge on Ramma-Tut. He changed his name to Apocalypse because no one could stand against his incredible strength, but by the time he got to the pharaoh's palace, Ramma-Tut had fled, leaving his technology called the Eye of Ages. Apocalypse learned how to use the vessel and decided to use it to reform the world in his own image."

"Mutants." The Professor says in the midst of the story, Alex had almost forgotten that she was still telepathically linked to the man. "He was going to change all non-mutants into mutants."

Alex had so many questions to ask him but he mentally urged her to continue the story. "Well, the Eye was powered by his own body, but when he activated it, it sucked away at his life force. And in that moment, his trusted advisors betrayed him and trapped him in the Eye because they feared this new world that Apocalypse wanted to create. They then hid him in the highest reaches of the Earth, behind three doors, hoping that he would never rise to walk the Earth again."

The hieroglyphics end and connection breaks. This obviously is not the news that the Professor was hoping the get through coming to Giza. "Alex, are you there?" Alex literally falls out of her chair at the sudden noise. She had dozed off to the soft lull of silence.

"Scott? Is that you?" Alex asks still drowsy. "What time is it?" From the amount of light coming in from the windows, it was well into the morning. Something must have happened in the Sphinx or they just left without taking their jet. "Did something happen?"

"Sort of, listen, Magneto is going to be using the Sphinx as a base, and we're going to head back to Bayville." Scott whispers, Kitty and Kurt were probably trying to eavesdrop as hard as possible on him right now. "Sorry about dragging you out there."

Alex stretches her stiff shoulders. "Don't worry about it. I'll tell my parents that the whole thing with the Sphinx is a bad idea and you guys can continue you're elusive search for Apocalypse." She could walk back to the camp site, but that could take ages, might as well wait for the metal controlling mutant, Magneto. "So, the world isn't going to end soon?"

"Can't be too sure about that." Scott says sounding more depressed than he has in a while. Or at least, since she left for Egypt, Flying around, trying to stop a terrifying mutant from awakening was not his idea of a grand reunion. "But once we save the world, I promise we can do whatever you want to do."

"I guess you can accompany me to my senior prom." Alex says after a while. She would spend her junior year in Egypt, and then try to catch up with the rest of her classmates when she returned from Egypt. "Unless that's too much trouble for you."

"No trouble at all."


	7. It Girl

The whole saving the world from an evil ancient Egyptian mutant seemed to be put on hold at the moment. Beast and the Professor couldn't find him, and with these weird purple domes appearing over pyramids, well, let's just say that they were at a loss of what to do. Sure they had fighting to do, the little disturbances caused by the mutant hate feelings. It was like the calm before the storm, a very long and boring calm.

It gave Scott time to do the little things in life like look through pictures and think about the past year. Especially on those long rides to wherever trouble has sprout up.

_I remember when they introduced the new kid_

_Kind of shy but kind of cool_

_Girls were checking out everything that you did_

_Causing quite a scene _

When Scott really thought about it, Alexandria Quincy was not just a simple transfer student, she kind of helped mold him into the person he was now. And that was really strange in itself because he never really expected her to have such an impact on his life.

He had never paid much attention to principal at the assemblies. They always featured the jocks and the cheerleaders, people he wasn't, the popular people. So it wasn't too big of a surprise that he didn't hear about the new transfer student until Kitty announced it in the car ride back to the Institute. Even then he didn't find it too interesting, he naturally blocked out most of what the girl had to say, especially when he was driving.

Of course he didn't too much notice in Alex when she hung around in Kitty's shadow, but she gradually started to appear more with Kitty, and caught his attention more often than not.

And she was the pet of the swim team. So petite and small, but she had power underneath all of her thinness. Powerful arm, shoulder, and leg muscles, but she was never overly muscular like the others. She was very different from what Scott had imagine her to be, maybe what everyone imagined her to be, which was why people curiously flocked around her. She didn't open up easily, letting other people talk for her. But she had spunk, Kitty could account for that.

The popular kids always tried to talk to her, not that Alex ever really responded to them and their advances. It was quite the thing at school, but things eventually died down, but not without its consequences. After that, she got quite the hidden fan group; he had accidentally walked in on one of their meetings. And it's one of the few secrets that he would never tell her.

_I was kind of quiet and pretended not to notice_

_Trying hard not to stare at you_

_No denying what would happen in the moment _

_When you turned and smiled at me_

"You have that look on your face again." Jean says sitting next to him on the jet back from saving the Professor's son, though, they didn't exactly save him. They were all pretty quiet about the failure of saving David from himself, his other self.

Scott glances at her. "What look?" He thought he had been holding a perfect poker face, though his thoughts were drifting around. It was a long flight, and everything was so depressingly quiet, it just got him down.

"**The** look," Jean says with a certain amount of emphasis. "Any girl would be lucky to have someone who feels so strongly for her."

It's weird to talk to Jean without flustering, he was still getting used to the fact of being so close to her while his girlfriend was thousands of miles away. "I just miss her, you know." How long exactly has it been since that time in Egypt? What was she doing now? Did she meet someone new? It might just be that Alex was his first proper girlfriend, but he still had his own insecurities. "At least she's having fun in Egypt."

They had spoken briefly when Kitty couldn't stand it anymore and they decided to video chat for a while. She made lots of new friends with the Egyptians and the kids of some of the other researchers. "Are you getting jealous?" No, he was seething jealousy; it was amazing others didn't figure it out.

"Just a bit." He replies leaning to look out the window. It's only when he's sure that Jean is asleep that he lets his hand slip into his wallet to pull out a picture. He had accidentally taken it when helping a friend take pictures. And then it developed relatively well, he couldn't say that he didn't smile when her smiling face appeared in the developing fluids. In moments like these, he's glad that he didn't destroy it.

_I remember when you told me that you liked me  
>and the first that I heard you say my name<em>

_I was so excited when you're sneaking up behind me _

_With something sweet to say_

Life was so peaceful with this doom riding over their heads, and the fact that they had to save the world that hated them didn't really help. Beating Duncan has always been able to lift his spirits, even just the slightest bit. "Well, aren't you looking rather down today?"

Scott falls unflatteringly out of his bed at the sudden sound of Alex's voice cutting through the silence of his room. "Oh, hey, I was just, you know, dealing." She nods knowingly.

"You want me to make you feel better?" She asks. She did this once before, and Scott fell foolishly into her trap. Alex gave lessons in English to the local guides, and they all seemed to be enjoying Alex's presence. "Their English is getting better."

Oh yeah, how could Scott forget the fact that she was a girl who accepted everyone for who they were and could get along with just about anybody. "Perhaps next time." Scott says hoping to get out of the situation as quick as possible. "Are you just getting up?"

"Well, it's a bit earlier than usual." Many of the local children couldn't go to school, therefore, Alex spent most of her days teaching English and in exchange, they taught her how to be Egyptian. Scott never saw her put on make up before she went to Egypt and it seems like she has taken to the eyeliner they wear there, kohl was it? "I just had a feeling."

"A feeling?"

"Yeah, a feeling that you were troubled." Alex explains staring at him, waiting for an answer or for him to talk about his troubles. "Are you troubled?"

Alex could always make him feel better. It was something in the way she said his name, like, in that moment, he was the only one that truly mattered. Or she smiles at him and the other mutants like they're all she could have dreamed they were and more. It was the little things she did.

Scott breaks out of his day dreaming when she repeats the question again. "No, I'm better now."

_It girl, it girl_

_I missed the way you talked to me_

_Talked to me, talked to me_

_It girl, it girl_

_I wish that I could get you off my mind_

_I don't know why_

_I just don't know why you had to leave_

Scott supposed that it was normal that he thought about her all the time. Alex always had good advice, their library study hall times eventually turned into his therapy sessions. He'd lie onto of one of the desks far within the depths of the library, wherever the resources for Alex's latest interest were. And as she bustled around reading books, looking up sources, and other things that she often did in the library, and he would just ask questions like "how do you think I should run my life?"

Alex would always complain that he was off his rocker, but she would always respond to his questions to the best of her ability. No, things would never be boring with her around.

"And things would never be boring listening to you." Kitty laughs leaning against his doorframe. The look on her face told him that he had accidentally said the last part of his thoughts out loud. "You could always go talk to her you know, I'm sure she'll make time for you."

Scott sighs and lies back on his bed. If he talked to her, then he'd want to talk to her more, and then it wouldn't be enough to just talk to her. He would get greedy. It would be best to just not think about her for a while, but that was really hard. "She's always busy."

"You don't know that for sure." Kitty says pushing off his doorframe. "She might have stayed if you told her you didn't want her to go."

Scott shifts his gaze from the ceiling over the Kitty; she of course doesn't notice the change. "You really think so?" Would Alex really stay for him? He vaguely remembered not supporting it for a while, but then gave up trying to convince her to stay. Perhaps if he tried harder he could have pushed her to stay. "No, if you couldn't convince her, then I wouldn't have been able to."

Kitty sighs, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. And she leaves Scott thinking about Alex again, really, how long has it been since he last **didn't** think of her?

_It girl, it girl_

_I missed the way you talked to me, talked to me_

"It's really hard to talk to you." Scott says answering the late video chat with Alex. She had the smallest hints of kohl still around her eyes, and she was wearing her American T-shirts again. "Are you going somewhere?"

Alex laughs. "I got invited to play a game with some children; it's kind of hard to run around in a long dress." She really did seem happier there in Egypt even if he wasn't at her side all the time.

"I was talking to Kitty earlier and, well, would you have stayed if I asked you to?" Scott rushes to ask. He had thought of the outcome of this question so many times, would she look disappointed, angry? Would she not like him anymore?

Alex shrugs glancing around her tent. "Maybe, would you have come with me if I asked you to?" There is amusement dancing in her brown speckled eyes. "Listen, Scott, I came here because I wanted to help you. You can't hope to hide your powers from the world, and these kids will be there to witness it. They are the future between human and mutant relations. Now, go to sleep, you look like you're about to fall over."

_Miss the way you had me feeling like a prince, girl_

_Bulletproof and super cool_

_And they way you used to break down my defenses_

_Just to touch my heart_

"Scott, are you there? Scott, its Alex! Please answer me." Alex's frightened voice rings through his deep slumber. At first he almost mistook it as a dream, until he looked at the blinking light on his laptop. "Scott? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Scott replies pulling up the video chat screen, slightly blinded by the sudden bright light in the room. "What's wrong?" Something must have happened, she was scared of something. Alex, in all the time the Scott had known her, had never shown fear to anything. Not even when he revealed his secret to her.

Alex pulls up some other piece of technology, one of the rare pieces that they had at the camp. "This shows all the known pyramids, sphinxes, broken temples, everything that is found is cataloged." It was like a digital map of Egypt with little red dots as the markers and tiny labels. "When I don't teach English I input data about them, but then something happened."

Scott frowns for a moment. "Alex, are you crying?" Her eyes did seem a big redder than they usually were and her voice cracked a bit. "Is it really that bad? I'm sure your parents will forgive any mistake you make."

Alex shakes her head, wiping unforeseen tears away. "It's not that. Look right here." She shoves the catalog thing up into the camera, pointing to a red dot in the middle of nowhere. "It wasn't there before; it just appeared out of nowhere."

"Are you sure about that?" Scott looked at the screen trying to understand how she could have noticed an extra dot amongst all the ones that were already there. Some were unlabeled and others had labels that merged with other labels and it looked like his 6th grade geography project.

"I am 100% sure that this pyramid wasn't there before." Alex replies stabbing the offending dot. "And I've seen the news about the other two pyramids, you don't know where Apocalypse is, what if he's coming to Egypt?"

This mysterious pyramid is truly mysterious in its appearance, and then it could be a reason to raise questions. "I'll talk to the Professor about it in the morning. But for now, don't worry about it, and stay away from it."

"Thanks." She cracks a half smile. "I know I can always count on you, Scott."

Sometimes even Scott needed some reassurance in his ability to be the hero when the time called for it.

_Any time I needed someone I could turn to_

_You're the number I would call_

_I always thought that you and I would be getting closer_

_But now we're miles apart_

"Hey, Alex." Scott says rubbing his temples, the entire day was completely draining. And it looked as if things weren't any better half way around the world. "I don't suppose you were waiting for good news?"

Alex shakes her head holding up the catalog tablet from before. She still seemed as scared as before, and she might have been crying again. "I got satellite video on this you know." She slides her finger of some icon and the red dots appear. "The one's the Great Sphinx, well, it's supposed to be." Scott couldn't really tell the difference, but it appeared to have a different label than its actual name. "I wanted to see what happened to the Sphinx so I looked at the satellite video, and."

"You saw, didn't you?" Scott sighs; at least he wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of explaining the situation to her. He wouldn't know how to cheer her up. "We don't know how to fight against someone as strong as Apocalypse, event he Professor couldn't stop him."

Alex puts her tablet down. "I'm sure you can find the solution. After all, you guys are the Professor's students; together you're probably more powerful than the Professor."

"I wish you were here, it would be so much easier to talk to you." Scott says feeling his spirits lifted. "Did you tell your parents to leave Giza yet? It's dangerous to be so close to the Great Sphinx right now."

Alex glances to the side, "we can't leave this village if Apocalypse decides to attack it, but don't worry, we're nowhere near the Sphinx." Scott really doesn't feel any less worried for her. "I think you should be planning on how you're going to come and save us from Apocalypse."

_Tell me what you went and did with all the blue skies_

_Tell me why all the roses had to fade_

_I keep trying _

_But it's hard to see the sun rise since you went away_

"Listen everyone; our opponents have had their mutant powers greatly enhanced." Beast explains through the communication system of their S.H.I.E.L.D jets. "So make no mistake, we are in for the fight of our lives."

They had gathered as many allies as they could find and split up into four groups to go against the pyramids and the sphinx. Going up against Mystique is hard enough without her enhancement; she easily took Scott out in Mexico. Scott was in the middle of his brooding when someone tossed a laptop into his lap. "Go talk to her, you're stinking up the room with your depression." Logan says returning to his steering.

"I thought I told you to go save the world already." Alex says narrowing her kohl lined eyes. She looked more tired than before, and a bit more roughed up. There is a small explosion somewhere in the distance, tiny figures huddle around her and in the background of her tent. "I'm letting the children stay here for the night; they're too scared to sleep by themselves."

Scott could do for some comfort right about then. It's not everyday he as to go and save the world or else millions of people will die while the rest become mutants. "Don't worry, we have a plan. But you wouldn't have an idea on how to stop him now would you?"

Alex rustles around for something on her desk. "Sorry, I don't know much about the Sphinx or about Apocalypse. He's probably in the very heart of the Sphinx, that's also probably where the Eye of Ages is. But it's kind of a rough estimate."

Scott nods; at least it was a start. "Well, I'll talk to you soon."

_Trying to forget your face, your eyes_

_I haven't got there yet, but I will, I will_

_Baby I would bet, you're missing me_

_I know you are_

_Who wouldn't be, you and I are royalty_

They were in Egyptian airspace by now. Scott couldn't tell if it was Apocalypse causing the darkness or if it was really late at night. Whatever time it was, it was the time to get his head in the game. More than just winning rested on their shoulders. The entire future of the human world did, and it was a heavy load, which meant he couldn't be thinking how nicely the dark kohl showed off the golden flecks in Alex's eyes.

At least he wasn't 'depressed' anymore. They were going to risk their lives for the world, whether they accepted them or not. "I sure hope the world appreciates what we're doing for them." Scott mumbles trying to keep his nerves calm.

"If we fail, they may not be a world at all." Kurt says anxiously, but that was just him. He would be able to think seriously with all that's at stake for them. This was kind of a moment of truth, to see if the Professor had taught them well or not.

Scott had a little mantra going in his head: "for the world, for the Professor, for our friends, for Alex, for the world, for the Professor, for our friends, for Alex." Alex? Her face immediately pops into his head. If Apocalypse turned the x-gene on in all non-humans, would Alex survive? What would happen if she didn't?

Scott quickly shakes those types of thoughts away; they would only distract him from fighting Mystique. Alex had faith in him, and he had faith in himself and everyone else. They had to succeed.

_It girl, it girl_

_I wish that I could get you off my mind_

_I don't know why_

_I just don't know why you had to leave_

_It girl, it girl_

_I missed the way you talked to me, talked to me_

"Hey, Scott, we have a surprise for you." Kitty says bursting into her room with tons of energy. They saved to world from Apocalypse and all Scott wanted was some peace and quiet. It's like none of the others were as mentally and physically drained as he was. Most of them were back to their usual antics the very next day.

Scott groans and pulls his pillow over his head. Maybe if he played dead, she would just leave him alone. "I need to sleep."

Kitty ignores his pleads and walks into his room, invading his privacy by pulling him out of his blankets. "Trust me, you won't regret this." The only reason why he actually followed her was because he wanted to go back to bed as soon as possible.

It must have been the sleep deprivation that caused him to think that he heard an all too familiar laughter drifting down the hall from the kitchen. But Alex was in Egypt, so it couldn't be her. He could only just stare at the scene in front of him, food everywhere (nothing new), Magneto talking peacefully with the Professor, and Alex in the middle of a group of x-kids. Yeah, he needed to go back to bed. "Oh, hey Scott!" No, she's real. Or at least he hoped her hug was real.

The two of them managed to sneak off for a while when more pizza arrived. "I thought you were staying in Egypt." They had wandered away from the party in the kitchen; amongst all the chaos, Scott's pretty sure that no one will miss them.

"We were, but the American Embassy sent us back here for our own safety. We're going to head back in a few weeks." Despite her having to leave again, he was happy that things worked out like this. "Thanks for saving the world, Scott."

"I wished more people appreciated that." Scott thinks bitterly about the protestors that had been hanging around their gate telling them to leave. With all that's happened, their secret would have been found out sooner or later. "How were they taking it in Egypt?"

Alex shrugs. "They were scared, in that area; there are a lot of legends about Apocalypse rising up from the dead to take over the world. But they took it quite well, considering everything, you know?"

"That's great." His voice sounded strangled even to himself. It's not like he was expecting the Egyptians to be inviting them over, especially after all that's happened there. By now, the whole world knew about mutants, Scott almost rather be bullied by Duncan again, _almost._

Alex squeezes his hand. "Just because there are some people who don't really like you doesn't mean there aren't people who want to support you." And this is why Scott missed his therapy sessions with Alex; she always knew what to say.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: This is the last chapter of this series, I hoped you liked it! Thinking about doing a Harry Potter fanfic next, any ideas for it? Just put it in a review.<p> 


	8. Story Playlist

What Makes You Beautiful Playlist

What Makes You Beautiful- One Direction

One Thing- One Direction

First Date- Blink 182

Why Not- Hilary Duff

Paradise- Coldplay (sort of, not really)

Can I Have This Dance- High School Musical 3

It Girl- Sterling Beaumon


End file.
